Councilman Won’t Face Charges in Sign Case
The Orange County district attorney’s office has declined to charge Councilman Steve Berry with removing a business competitor’s signs last month.
“I reviewed all of the police reports and came to a decision that there was insufficient evidence to prove that Mr. Berry committed a crime,” said Sheila Hanson, a deputy district attorney.
The controversy began March 12, when police stopped Berry, the owner of an Anaheim company that produces trade shows, on suspicion of impaired driving at 1:34 a.m. Police said the officer then noticed numerous signs in the back of his van and questioned him.
Berry, 35, said he was removing outdated promotional signs from his own trade shows and decided to dismantle other old signs to clear the community of blight.
Police found 30 to 40 signs in the van. Among them was at least one belonging to business rival Sumita Batra of Ziba Productions in La Mirada. Batra said that about 300 signs for an upcoming bridal show had disappeared around the time that Berry was stopped.
Berry, who was elected to his first term on the City Council in November, said he had taken Batra’s sign by mistake.
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