Supporters Rally at City Hall for Council Hopeful Williams

Dozens of supporters, including City Council members Jan Perry and Bernard C. Parks, rallied Tuesday outside City Hall on behalf of council candidate Deron Williams, who admitted last week that he had pleaded guilty to felony cocaine possession 15 years ago.

Williams, a top aide to Councilman Nate Holden, has characterized his 1988 arrest at Ontario Airport as a “tragic time in my life.”

According to a police report, Williams had bags of cocaine in his underwear. Williams, who is 35, has disputed elements of the police report, but refuses to elaborate.

“I made a mistake and I paid for it,” he said Tuesday.

Williams, who has said he was raised in South Los Angeles by a single mother with a substance-abuse problem, was hired by Holden shortly after his arrest. He also got to know both Perry and Parks, who praised him Tuesday as a young man in difficult circumstances who had managed to turn his life around.

“Many young men who have lived the life that Deron has lived, specifically many African American men in our communities, are either dead or in jail,” Perry said. “He is not. He is here. And he is a success.”

Also on Tuesday, Williams was formally endorsed by four of his five opponents in the March primary election. The fifth, Martin Ludlow, is opposing Williams in the May 20 runoff election.