No Evidence of Crimes Found in Democratic Trash

State investigators found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in trash collected from an Assembly Democratic office in January, the attorney general’s office announced Friday.

A garbage truck full of trash was seized in January outside the legislative office building across from the Capitol, right after Republican Curt Pringle of Garden Grove became speaker.

Assembly Republicans claimed that the trash showed that Democratic staffers had been working on elections on state time.

But investigators for Republican Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren’s Justice Department said they were unable to find any evidence that the staffers used state time, resources or equipment for political purposes.

Some of the documents in the trash were political in nature, the department said, but agents were unable to establish that any were created on state time with state computers.

Agents also reviewed Assembly computer records and files and found no evidence that any of those state machines were used to produce political material.

“We have said from the beginning that this was a couple of Republicans who would rather chase fantasies than deal with public issues,” said Minority Leader Richard Katz (D-Sylmar).

“This started out as garbage. It was always garbage. Garbage in, garbage out,” he said.