D.A.’s Corruption Probes Praised

When South Gate Treasurer Albert Robles was recalled last month, Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley issued a statement calling it “a victory for good government.”

Cooley had reason to celebrate -- his office’s prosecution of Robles was cited as one of the key reasons to remove the 37-year-old political boss.

But at the same time, Robles is a free man because Cooley’s office could not convict him on charges of making terrorist threats against politicians.

The outcome reflects Cooley’s much-praised crusade against government corruption in Los Angeles County, where victories are not measured only by how many public servants end up in jail.

The district attorney has drawn widespread praise for uncovering crimes by politicians and government officials, and for chastising school boards and political operatives who ignore California’s “sunshine” laws that mandate that most government business be conducted in public.

At the same time, Cooley’s prosecutors last month lost their two biggest cases in court. The same week a judge dismissed charges against Robles after a mistrial, prosecutors dismissed charges against another prominent target, Bell Gardens City Manager Maria Chacon, in an unrelated case.

Cooley’s courtroom successes have been against several suburban school board members and city council members who filed false papers claiming to live in the cities they represented.

Those relatively low-level cases contrast with the two that helped propel Cooley into office -- the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division police corruption scandal and the construction of the Belmont Learning Center.

Since he took office more than two years ago, Cooley has “closed the book,” in his words, on Rampart by declining to file charges in 50 cases stemming from the scandal, and has yet to release a long-anticipated report into possible crimes at Belmont.

Choices Questioned

“The type of public corruption he campaigned on is not the type of public corruption he’s pursuing,” said Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who stressed that she still admires Cooley’s focus on corruption cases. “I don’t think the individual on the street has as many concerns about council members who are lying as they do about police officers who they think are corrupt.”

Cooley’s willingness to take on more powerful institutions has been questioned. He chastised the Los Angeles school board and other government bodies for violating the state’s open meeting law, but he pointedly declined to level the same criticism against the county Board of Supervisors, which determines his budget. A judge later ruled that the supervisors did violate the law, known as the Ralph M. Brown Act.

Two prosecutors recently alleged that Cooley changed the investigation of a politically powerful developer, Newhall Land & Farming Co., from a felony probe of alleged fraud and perjury to a misdemeanor environmental case. District attorney investigators have dismissed the allegations as coming from disgruntled employees.

Cooley is more aggressive about investigating local corruption than his predecessors, and therefore deserves credit, most observers said. There are 139 investigations into allegations of wrongdoing by government workers or politicians.

“This is something Steve Cooley should really be applauded for,” USC law professor Erwin Chemerinsky said. “In the places where he has uncovered [corruption], I think he has done an enormous service.”

Cooley, who has spoken at local government conferences about the need to obey open-meeting and other laws, said the cases his office has pursued have a deep impact and that the push against public corruption will be “a big chunk” of his legacy.

“I am getting incredible, positive response from the public at large,” he said. “Also from elected city officials and managers, the professional people who make government work in this county. They welcome this.... They’re happy that we are cleaning up some areas where it has gone on too long.”

David Demerjian, head of the district attorney’s Public Integrity Division, said that last month’s court defeats stung, but that he believes his unit is making an impact. Lawyers for politicians have begun calling the district attorney’s office to ensure that actions their clients plan are legal, Demerjian said.

“We’ve learned a lot in the two years,” Demerjian said. In the beginning, “there was no institutional memory here because we hadn’t done these investigations before. Everything was done from scratch. Someone would bring one [case] in, we’d look at it and say, ‘That looks bad, but is it illegal? What statute does it violate?’ ”

During his successful run for office in 2000, Cooley accused incumbent Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti of turning a blind eye toward crimes of politicians or the well-connected, citing such cases as Rampart and Belmont.

One of Cooley’s first acts as district attorney was to break the office’s special investigations division into two units -- one for police corruption, the other for political corruption.

The anti-political-corruption unit was soon put to the test when Cooley was asked to investigate anonymous phone calls that smeared then-Los Angeles mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa. The district attorney’s office tied those calls to rival mayoral candidate and U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles). Although no charges were filed, the congressman was publicly embarrassed.

No-Contest Pleas

Next, prosecutors and district attorney investigators started serving search warrants at city halls in municipalities across southeastern Los Angeles County, where the political empire of South Gate Treasurer Robles has become a central focus.

Prosecutors convicted one of Robles’ political allies, Richard Mayer, of filing false papers to run for the South Gate City Council. They prosecuted an ally of Robles’ for publishing a false campaign mailer and the publisher’s wife for filing false papers claiming South Gate residency in her own council bid. The two pleaded no contest to the charges last year.

The district attorney’s office also arrested Robles, charging him with making terrorist threats by threatening kill two legislators and rape one of them, and with possessing two illegal assault weapons.

They tried Robles on the threat charges first. Robles argued that he was engaging in political speech. The jury deadlocked on the case in December, leading a judge to declare a mistrial and dismiss the threat charges.

Despite the dismissal, Cooley said, he was satisfied.

“It’s about the process sometimes and not the end result,” he said. “I think a lot was gained by holding Mr. Robles accountable for his provable conduct.”

Last week, Robles and the City Council majority he allegedly controlled were recalled from office by an 8-to-1 margin. Recall proponents had slapped photos of Robles being handcuffed by district attorney’s investigators on their mailers.

Chacon was a Bell Gardens councilwoman when she allegedly mounted a campaign to have herself appointed to the city’s $80,000-a-year city manager post.

Chacon’s lawyer was prepared to argue that his client was merely acting on the advice of the city attorney, who had ruled that the move was legal. When a judge allowed that line of defense last month, the district attorney’s office criticized the ruling, dismissed the case and filed an appeal.

“There’s a learning curve” in corruption cases, said Levenson, the former federal prosecutor. Chacon’s defense, she added, “is not an unusual defense.”

Levenson and other observers were not surprised that Cooley has focused on smaller cities such as Bell Gardens and South Gate. The U.S. attorney’s office, which has more than two dozen lawyers who handle government corruption and fraud cases, often takes the lead in larger corruption probes.

Smaller jurisdictions also may be riper breeding grounds for corruption, said former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner.

“They don’t get the scrutiny that you get in big cities,” Reiner said. “There are activities that wouldn’t get under the radar screen at the Los Angeles City Council.”

Bigger Targets

Cooley aides said they will go after bigger targets if the opportunity presents itself and cited their probe of the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., the local film permitting agency whose board included members of the Los Angeles City Council and the county Board of Supervisors.

Investigators have examined how some of those board members got campaign contributions from the EIDC, and are interviewing people who said they were shaken down for contributions to council members’ favorite causes in exchange for film permits.

No criminal charges have been filed in the case.

Reiner said that even if Cooley has not won big convictions yet, his aggressive investigations are probably a deterrent to would-be public crooks.

“Everybody’s afraid they’re the next ones in the crosshairs,” he said.

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Times staff writer Anna Gorman contributed to this report.