Investigators Search Homes of School Board Candidate

The homes and truck of a West Covina school board member were searched by Los Angeles County district attorney’s investigators as part of a probe into whether he lives out of town in violation of state residency rules for public officials.

Peter Sabatino Jr., 48, on Monday denied that he lives at the Downey house he bought in 1996. Sabatino, a 13-year incumbent on the school board who is up for reelection next week, said he lives in a home owned by his mother in an unincorporated area in the West Covina school district.

“I am longtime resident. I vote there. My bills come there,” he said. “I spend time at the Downey house because my 17-year-old son lives there. There isn’t a bed there for me. When I stay there I sleep on the sofa,” said Sabatino, who said he is a single parent and his son lives alone.

The district attorney’s public integrity division is conducting the probe, similar to several others around the county involving the legal addresses of elected officials. In the last few months, a Huntington Park councilwoman and a South Gate City Council candidate have been charged with perjury for signing documents stating they lived in those respective cities when, prosecutors allege, they lived elsewhere.

Sabatino, a Democrat who is among four candidates vying for two school board seats on Nov. 6, said he is a victim of unfounded accusations by his political enemies, who like Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley are Republicans.

Sandi Gibbons, a district attorney’s spokeswoman, said such investigations are based on evidence, not politics. Warrants, she said, were served at four locations as part of a 5-month-old investigation. She said it is not expected to conclude before the election.

Sabatino said he was visiting the Downey house early Friday when “investigators with guns drawn came pounding on the door.”

“I was wearing a towel and they took me to the frontyard,” he said. “It was scary. I was shaking uncontrollably.”

Gibbons said the investigators followed standard procedures with such warrants by having their guns drawn but not pointed. She said Sabatino, wearing a towel, was escorted onto the front porch, not into the yard.

Investigators briefly questioned him and seized bills and statements from that house and the one in West Covina, searched his truck and took files from the school district offices, said Sabatino, who works as a records manager for the Los Angeles County Office of Education in Downey. “I told them I had nothing to hide,” he said.