Ex-Convict Runs for Reno Council

A man running for the Reno City Council served five years in prison for shooting a Los Angeles police officer, but he doesn’t think voters will hold it against him.

“The past is in the past,” said Raymond Macha, who shot the officer when he was stopped for speeding 23 years ago.

“My life has changed. I am more responsible,” said the candidate.

Macha was 27 when he was sentenced to San Quentin. He was released after spending five years in prison and was on parole for two years.

“I’ve done my time,” he told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

A founding member of the local Latinos for Political Education, Macha said he’s running for council to try to become a voice for the underrepresented Latino community in the city.

Now a cook at a Circus Circus casino restaurant, he said that the shooting was the result of police harassment and that three of his friends had been killed by law enforcement officers.

Reno Police Chief Jerry Hoover said he was shocked to learn of Macha’s past.

“I have no forgiveness for someone who shoots a cop,” Hoover said.

Macha, who grew up in Pico Rivera, would probably be ineligible to run for office if the shooting had been in Nevada, said Laura Dancer, Washoe County registrar of voters.

But California automatically restores civil rights to convicts after their sentences are completed, she said.

“Since his civil rights have been restored, he is eligible to vote and run for office,” Dancer said.

Macha, 50, said he thought the officers who pulled him over 23 years ago were going to try to kill him. He got into a scuffle and shot one of the officers with the officer’s gun.

“I was getting harassed by the police on a regular basis,” he said. “Three of my close friends had been killed by the police. They said they had committed suicide. . . . They hung themselves in their cells.”

Macha isn’t the only candidate on the City Council ballot with a checkered past.

Henry Lucero said he set his roommate’s car on fire four years ago and pleaded guilty to property destruction, a misdemeanor. He told police he was upset because his male roommate continued to date women rather than return his affections.

Norris Bacho was fired from his city administrator job in September. He had been accused of filing false reports of moving expenses. He also admitted in court last week that he fraudulently obtained prescription drugs.

Bacho is to be sentenced Sept. 4, three days after the primary election.