Ex-Player Who Won Rezoning Aided Corona Official, Suit Says

Former Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra bought Corona City Councilman Darrell Talbert some new palm trees shortly before city officials rezoned the athlete’s property for a luxury gas station, then he hired the councilman after it was approved, according to a recently filed lawsuit.

Allegations about the financial relationship between the baseball player and councilman were included in a wrongful-dismissal lawsuit filed by one of Dykstra’s former employees, and the tree purchase has apparently been investigated by the FBI.

Dykstra’s attorney denies there was any wrongdoing, and the city’s top planning official denied that Talbert intervened on Dykstra’s behalf.

“As far as my client Lenny Dykstra is concerned, this is much ado about nothing,” said attorney Daniel Petrocelli. “This all appears to be inspired by individuals seeking to gain political and litigation advantages.”

Talbert declined to comment, and attempts to reach Dykstra were unsuccessful. Lindsay Jones, the former employee who filed the suit against Dykstra, and the plaintiff’s attorney also declined to comment.

In Jones’ lawsuit, which he filed in April, he alleges that he was fired Sept. 6, the day after the grand opening of a Lenny Dykstra’s Car Wash in South Corona. He says he believes he was fired as a means of cutting him out of future business opportunities and to avoid paying his $225,000 annual salary.

According to court records, Dykstra’s attorneys said Jones resigned after Dykstra confronted him about allegedly embezzling money from their partnership, demanding kickbacks from contractors and badly mismanaging the business.

Talbert, 38, is a lifelong Corona resident who has served on the council for a decade. Shortly after graduating from college, Talbert co-founded two companies dealing in celebrity and sports autographs and memorabilia that were bought by Collectors Universe in 2000.

On March 15, Talbert became the chief operating officer of Dykstra’s corporation, which runs the All-Star player’s luxury carwashes in Corona and Simi Valley. Dykstra owns a 3.5-acre property in South Corona that was subdivided into four parcels in 2001. At the time, the City Council ruled that one of the lots could house only a sit-down restaurant, a restriction that Dykstra’s company unsuccessfully tried to have rescinded.

The lawsuit alleges that Talbert helped persuade city officials to rezone the property to allow the gas station after Dykstra had several personal meetings with the councilman last summer.

Corona Planning Director Peggy Temple disputes that account and said neither Talbert nor any other council member intervened on Dykstra’s behalf.

Temple said Dykstra’s representatives sought the zoning change because they were having difficulty finding a restaurant interested in the southern Corona site, just off the Riverside Freeway and two exits from the Crossings retail center.

“We had been working with them for quite a while on the rest of the center, and this was just one of their applications that we responded to,” Temple said. “There was nothing unusual or different about this.”

The City Council unanimously agreed to lift the restrictions on Dykstra’s property in January, two months before Talbert started his new job with Dykstra. Jones’ lawsuit also states that Dykstra arranged for a landscaper to work on Talbert’s backyard and send Dykstra’s corporation half the bill.

Darrell Adamson, owner of Emerald Images in Murrieta, said in an interview that he planted 16 medium-sized palm trees and four small palms around Talbert’s swimming pool in October, which cost roughly $850.

Half was billed to Dykstra and the other half to Talbert, Adamson said.

Adamson said he was interviewed about the matter about two months ago by three FBI agents in the office of his Temecula Valley attorney. An FBI spokeswoman, noting agency policy, said she could neither confirm nor deny such an investigation.

Adamson, who is married to Jones’ former wife, said he did not know whether the councilman knew of the arrangement.

“I do know that he knew he was getting a good price for the palms,” he said.