Hernandez Is Charged With 1 Drug Felony

One week after his arrest in a dark carport in Pacoima, Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Hernandez was charged Thursday with one felony count of cocaine possession in a case that could hold far more serious political than penal consequences for the lawmaker.

In filing the charge against the 44-year-old councilman, the district attorney’s office also submitted a declaration that would allow Hernandez--like any first-time drug offender--to avoid a prison sentence by pleading guilty and serving time in a drug rehabilitation program. That approach would preclude a felony conviction for Hernandez, who is scheduled to be arraigned today in a downtown courtroom.

Court documents filed Thursday list 10 different occasions on which Hernandez was alleged to have purchased cocaine while under surveillance. On Wednesday, a search warrant affidavit detailed eight of those alleged incidents.

Two men arrested with Hernandez after a monthlong surveillance by a multi-jurisdictional law enforcement team also were charged with felony possession of cocaine. Both Jose Gallardo, 34, and Jess Alvara Ramirez, 47, had originally been arrested on suspicion of possession of cocaine for sale, but a review of evidence led to the lesser charge, the district attorney’s office said.

However, the district attorney’s office concluded that, unlike Hernandez, Gallardo and Ramirez were not candidates for the alternative sentencing program. In detailed declarations, prosecutor Daniel Feldstern said authorities recovered 0.33 grams of cocaine and cash from Gallardo, and 5.25 grams of cocaine, cash and guns from Ramirez.

For Hernandez, who has been in a rehabilitation facility since his arrest, the chief political and legal difficulties now revolve around the peculiarities of the law that allow some defendants to receive treatment rather than jail time when facing drug charges. Under that law, Hernandez would be assigned to a drug treatment program for no less than 18 months and no longer than three years.

If Hernandez decides to pursue that course rather than fight the charge against him in court, he would be an ideal candidate. The councilman has no criminal record, and the amount of cocaine found on him when he was arrested was relatively small.

But to qualify for treatment rather than jail, he must first plead guilty to the felony charge. Under the City Charter, any council member who is “convicted” of a felony faces removal from office. Despite the risk to Hernandez’s job, however, several legal experts said they believe that his entry of a plea should not trigger the charter provision calling for his removal.

“Unless he’s judged guilty of a felony, I would think that that would not apply,” said Harland W. Braun, who often represents white-collar criminal defendants. “All he is doing is entering a plea.”

Still, even that step could carry political consequences for the councilman, who first came to office in 1991. It would mean that he would return to his council seat under the cloud of his guilty plea, one that could remain in place for years while he undergoes treatment before being forced to return to the judge and ask that the case be dismissed.

In the latest court papers, prosecutor Feldstern provided more details of Hernandez’s alleged drug purchases.

According to a declaration accompanying the charge against Gallardo, authorities allege that on nine separate occasions, Hernandez drove from his City Hall office to Gallardo’s home in Pacoima, entered the residence and stayed for a short period of time.

On Aug. 6, the declaration alleges, Hernandez was seen leaving Gallardo’s home with “a small Baggie containing a white substance resembling cocaine.”

Fifteen days later, Hernandez was arrested by authorities as he left Gallardo’s residence with one-eighth of an ounce of cocaine “packaged in the same manner” as Aug. 6, the declaration claims.

That same night, after waiving his Miranda rights, Hernandez told the arresting officer that he had purchased the cocaine from Gallardo. And a subsequent search of Gallardo and his home turned up 0.33 grams of cocaine, two gram-weight scales commonly used to weigh narcotics and $525 in cash, the declaration says.

A separate declaration filed in connection with Ramirez alleges that on July 24, Hernandez drove from his downtown office to Ramirez’s residence in Arleta. The councilman parked in front of the apartment building for about 50 minutes and when Ramirez arrived home, he approached the open passenger window of Hernandez’s car, reached inside and handed Hernandez an unknown object before the councilman drove away.

While unable to detail what was handed over to Hernandez, the prosecutor’s declaration says that the activity, according to surveillance detectives, was consistent with the street sale of narcotics.

Further, the declaration alleges that after his arrest, Ramirez told an officer that the cocaine seized from his home was his and that “sometime in July 1997 he had given cocaine to Michael Hernandez.”

Inside Ramirez’s home, according to the court papers, narcotics detectives seized 5.25 grams of cocaine, two rifles, two handguns, a triple-beam scale, $9,725 in cash and “writings consistent with ‘pay-and-owe’ narcotics sales records.”

Sources close to the investigation said the ledger of Ramirez’s alleged drug activity included many names but did not mention Hernandez. The closest reference, in fact, was a “Mike,” the sources said.

Hernandez’s lawyer, Charles English, was at court and not immediately available for comment on the filing of the felony charge. The councilman’s chief of staff, Morrie Goldman, would not predict the legal response to the filing, but said Hernandez’s goal was clear.

“Mike checked himself into a facility,” Goldman said. “His intent is to get better.”

Since Hernandez checked into the rehabilitation facility, his staff has been in regular touch with him, but the councilman himself has stayed out of public view.

At his office, though, aides continued to press forward with government business.

Hernandez’s staff announced Thursday that it was launching the search for a new site to house an at-risk youth program in the councilman’s district.