Politician’s Trial Is Reinstated

In a victory for prosecutors, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday that former Bell Gardens City Councilwoman Maria Chacon cannot use a novel legal defense that prosecutors believed would have led to her acquittal on a charge that she illegally orchestrated her appointment as city manager.

The ruling by the 2nd District Court of Appeal prevents the use of the defense that prosecutors said would have hurt their ability to pursue political corruption cases across the county. The case now goes back to court and prosecutors will proceed to trial.

The entrapment defense posed by Chacon’s attorney, Michael Nasatir, would have allowed Chacon to argue that she had relied on the advice of the city attorney, who allegedly said her actions were legal.

Prosecutors, on the eve of trial last year, decided not to proceed after the trial judge, Superior Court Judge Michael M. Johnson, said he would allow that line of argument. Johnson eventually dismissed the charge against Chacon.

In reversing the lower court, the appeals court ruled that allowing the entrapment defense would undercut the district attorney’s prosecutorial authority.

“The city attorney of Bell Gardens has neither enforcement nor regulatory authority over the state conflict-of-interest criminal statutes,” wrote Justice Norman L. Epstein for the three-judge panel. “Certainly the power to prosecute is reserved to the district attorney acting as a public prosecutor.”

The ruling was hailed by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, which has made political corruption cases a priority in recent years. Prosecutors feared that the entrapment defense would insulate public figures from prosecution because they could argue that they had relied on bad advice from city attorneys.

That would be the “perfect defense” in almost any public integrity case, said Richard Doyle, director of the agency’s Bureau of Fraud and Corruption Prosecution.

“It strikes a strong blow against local government corruption,” Doyle said of the ruling.

Nasatir, Chacon’s attorney, would not comment, saying he had not yet read the ruling.

Chacon was charged in June 2001 with engineering her appointment as city manager in a two-step plan.

As a councilwoman, she voted to repeal a law requiring one year to elapse before an elected official could be appointed to a staff position.

Chacon then allegedly met privately with two council members and influenced them to vote for her appointment. She was appointed in late 2000 to the $80,000-per-year job.

Prosecutors accused Chacon of violating a law that prohibits elected officials from voting on matters in which they hold a financial interest.