Redondo Beach City Clerk Admits Forging License Plate Sticker

The judge called it “sad.”

His own lawyer said that what John Oliver had done was “stupid.”

A probation officer called it “unfathomable.”

And in court Monday, Oliver, the elected Redondo Beach city clerk, pleaded no contest to forging a license plate tab--admitting that he had forged one of those little stickers that goes on a vehicle’s rear plate and that shows the annual registration fee has been paid.

“I’m sorry,” Oliver said as he pleaded with Superior Court Judge Michael A. Tynan to reduce the charge from a felony to a less serious misdemeanor.

A felony conviction on his record would force Oliver, 49, to resign as city clerk, a post he has held since 1982 and that now pays him $95,568 a year. With a misdemeanor, however, he could stay on the job--that is, pending an election next year.

As Tynan wrestled Monday morning with his decision, the irony was inescapable: an elected clerk, a man whose job is certifying the accuracy of city records, fessing up to forgery.

How did it come to this?

Oliver is well-known in the South Bay, and not just because he’s an elected official. He has long contributed his time to various charities; for years, on his frequent trips to Baja California, he has taken toys, medical supplies, clothing, cars and boats for donation. Friends and supporters call him caring, compassionate and generous. He has no criminal record.

Oliver also has long been a boat and car collector. Court papers list six vehicles--including a 1957 Chevy--as well as five boats and a boat trailer.

Last Oct. 27, a Redondo Beach parking officer “on a routine patrol” saw a parked 1964 Ford van that had, according to a probation report, “a registration tag which could not be easily read.”

The officer checked more closely and found that the tag, purportedly for 1997, looked bogus.

He took the tag for evidence and within moments was approached by Oliver, who said the van was his--he had bought it in 1990--and asked if there was a problem.

Told that the tag was invalid, Oliver said he “was not aware of that” and used the van only rarely. According to a police report, Oliver then asked if the officer could “give him a break,” telling him that he would get the van registered properly and adding that he was the elected city clerk.

Later, the officer told his supervisor about the encounter. A check showed that there had been another incident outside Oliver’s home involving a different officer and another bogus tab--but a different vehicle, a Ford Ranger pickup truck--on Oct. 1.

Given that there had been two incidents, Redondo Beach police asked for--and got--a search warrant for Oliver’s house. There, according to the probation report, they found colored paper, a calendar, a tube of glue and, finally, a California license plate bearing a fake registration sticker.

Prosecutors filed a forgery charge, deciding to bring it as a felony though acknowledging that a judge could reduce it to a misdemeanor. In court Monday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Dennis Poey pointed out that Oliver had bought the van in 1990 but not registered it until 1997--and only after “he got caught.”

Defense attorney Robert E. Courtney countered that Oliver had registered the van properly on Oct. 29, paying about $300 in back fees. Courtney said all Oliver’s boats and cars were properly registered.

Courtney then argued that the only reason the case was being pursued as a felony was because of who Oliver was, not what he had done. “This conduct deserves to be a misdemeanor,” Courtney said.

Oliver said tags had been stolen at least three times from plates, and he and his wife were weary of dealing with teenage vandals and with the Department of Motor Vehicles--so he affixed the bogus tags.

And he said, “Your Honor, had I known it was this serious . . . I would not have done it.”

Tynan sighed.

Given the nature of the crime, Oliver’s lack of a criminal record and the “punishment he’s already served in public humiliation,” the judge said, he was reducing the case to a misdemeanor.

He sentenced Oliver to three years’ probation and 300 hours of community service.

“Man,” the judge said, “you make it tough on all of us when this sort of thing happens.”