Judge Tosses Conspiracy Case Against Casden Subcontractor

A Los Angeles judge threw out the conspiracy case Friday against Laszlo Furdek, a subcontractor for developer Alan Casden.

But Judge Michael Johnson upheld the cases against John Archibald, an executive of Casden’s company, and 11 other subcontractors, who are charged with conspiring to hand out illegal campaign donations.

The Los Angeles County Grand Jury returned indictments in November. The defendants are accused of trying to get around campaign finance limits by soliciting contributions from their friends, relatives and employees and then reimbursing those donors.

Johnson ruled that the case against Furdek of Cal State Steel could not proceed because the grand jury indictment was based on testimony he had given to the Los Angeles Ethics Commission under immunity from prosecution.

Furdek’s attorney, Stephen Sadowsky, said that the dismissal was “nice, but rare.”

“Our belief was that they used his immunized testimony and the judge agreed,” he said.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Juliet Schmidt said the statements Furdek had given to the Ethics Commission had not been used, and that the district attorney’s office had sufficient independent evidence for Furdek to be indicted.

The remaining defendants are scheduled to return to court May 7. Judge Johnson did not rule on the case of Bruce Shaffer of Starlight Showers & Doors.

The subcontractors charged are Shaffer, Anthony Boozel of the concrete company TBCI, Randall Carpenter of Design Masonry, James Gates of Capital Drywall, Jerry Hein of Desert Roofing, Ed Hutcherson of Seems Plumbing, William Isaac of Isaac Construction, Brian Larrabure of framing company BLF, Gerard Lundgren of Freedom Paint, David Mercer of HMK Engineering, Simon Rubin of Simon’s Electric and Isaac Zaharoni of Zaharoni Industries.