Candidate for Assembly Reveals Arrest Record

In an unusual move, Assembly candidate Cesar Portillo, a gay activist running in a Hollywood-Eastside district, disclosed Sunday that he was arrested nine years ago after being propositioned by an undercover Los Angeles policeman.

Surrounded by members of his family, his partner and supporters at a news conference at his Highland Park election headquarters, Portillo claimed that the campaign of his opponent, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, had begun a whisper campaign about the arrest and he chose to discuss it.

Goldberg flatly denied that her campaign had any role in spreading information about the issue. “We would never raise it,” she said in an interview. “We did hear rumors, but I told everybody this was not something we were going to do. I don’t think this is an appropriate issue to raise.”

Portillo, the director of governmental affairs at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said he chose to address the issue head-on because he “wanted to make sure people heard from me first rather than misinformation and smear.”

In a statement read to supporters at the news conference, he said: “Nine years ago, I was approached by an undercover police officer who propositioned me and then arrested me. I was not guilty. I was in my twenties and I did not have the money to fight this in court.”

Later, in an interview, Portillo said he pleaded no contest to the 1991 misdemeanor charge of lewd conduct and paid a fine of about $200. After his arrest, he said, he was automatically suspended from his job as an elementary school teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District and resigned before the case was concluded.

The 36-year-old Portillo vowed to continue campaigning for the seat being vacated by Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), who is running for mayor of Los Angeles. Villaraigosa and County Supervisor Gloria Molina, among others, have endorsed Goldberg. Portillo has been endorsed by numerous Latino legislators, including state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles).

Portillo said he will release any officeholders from their previous endorsement if they so desire.

The March 7 primary is tantamount to election because the 45th Assembly District is so overwhelmingly Democratic in registration that there is no Republican on the ballot. The district runs from Hollywood through Silver Lake, Mount Washington, Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, and Highland Park to the edge of Pasadena.

Prominent gay activist Morris Kight, a member of the county’s Human Relations Commission, said that what happened to Portillo reflects police harassment and entrapment of gays.

And Wallace Albertson, a longtime Democratic Party activist, added that she was appalled at “this kind of character assassination and smearing going on.”

Portillo charged that the whisper campaign had started in Sacramento when a legislator and a legislative aide were contacted by Goldberg’s campaign.

Parke Skelton, Goldberg’s campaign consultant, denied that that occurred. “It’s been whispered about for quite some time,” Skelton said. “Believe me, it didn’t come from us.” He said Goldberg has no intention of using “any issue about [Portillo’s] private life or criminal arrest” in the final weeks of the race. “This is a ludicrous battle to get in the middle of,” he said.

Skelton did say that people in Sacramento had called him about the arrest.

Anticipating that the arrest could find its way into the contest, Portillo’s campaign manager, Frank Berged III, said it was necessary to discuss the issue.