Vernon Turns Files Over to D.A.

After a year of legal battles, Los Angeles County prosecutors have obtained volumes of documents from Vernon City Hall that are at the center of a public corruption probe of the small industrial city.

Vernon city leaders fought to keep the records from the district attorney’s office, taking the case to the California Supreme Court.

But the high court refused to hear Vernon’s final appeal last week, and prosecutors are now reviewing 1,700 pages of city records. Soon after receiving the documents, prosecutors served search warrants last week at City Hall as well as at homes both in Southern California and out of state.

Prosecutors have criticized Vernon’s aggressive efforts to keep the records private, saying that they are looking at whether former city employees -- including the former city administrator -- defrauded the city treasury.

It’s one of several legal battles that Vernon is now fighting.

In early January, eight people moved into a small building in Vernon. Within days, three of the eight filed papers to run for the City Council. The group was evicted, and their voter registration was canceled by City Clerk Bruce Malkenhorst Jr.

The City Council subsequently voted to cancel the election and to reelect the three incumbents. But a judge ruled that canceling the voter registration was not lawful and ordered the April election to go forward.

The city has still not counted ballots from the election, alleging that the challengers committed fraud. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge is expected to rule in that case in just over a month, but it’s unclear when officials will count the ballots in what was the city’s first contested election in 25 years.

Prosecutors have said the documents they obtained last week are at the center of their public corruption probe.

David Demerjian, head deputy of the district attorney’s Public Integrity Unit, declined to provide details about the new searches.

“We’re going to do a preliminary review to see what we have,” Demerjian said of the records. “Right now, we’re just not sure if we have a smoking gun or what.”

In court papers filed by prosecutors, an investigator said that documents that should have been on file at City Hall were either missing or destroyed.

The legal wrangling involves documents that then-City Atty. Eduardo Olivo presented to the Vernon City Council in 2004.

According to court records, Olivo compiled an 85-page report, along with 35 numbered exhibits, titled, “City of Vernon Legal Counsel’s Office Report on City Administrator’s Misappropriation of Public Funds Through the Misuse of the City Petty Cash and Credit Card Process.”

Olivo included 1,700 pages of city records in four bound volumes.

In court, the city’s lawyers have argued that all of the documents, including the preexisting city records, are protected by attorney-client privilege.

The city’s attorneys argued in court that Vernon would be “irremediably harmed” if the records were unsealed.

Vernon has also questioned Olivo’s motivations.

According to copies of a Sept. 15, 2004, council agenda, Mayor Leonis C. Malburg called Olivo’s critical report the work of a disgruntled employee. Olivo was immediately fired. The ex-city attorney and the city have been locked in litigation ever since.

City officials have argued in court documents that Olivo was involved in backing candidates challenging the City Council incumbents, some of whom have been in office for 50 years. City officials have said the candidates are part of an effort by Albert Robles, the former South Gate city treasurer who was convicted of corruption, to take over Vernon.

Olivo has declined to comment, as have city officials. And the former city administrator, Bruce V. Malkenhorst Sr., could not be reached for comment.

Last week, witness testimony ended in a trial over Malkenhorst Jr.’s attempts to strip the voter registration of the people who moved into Vernon without seeking permission, including the three who ran for office. Both sides are expected back in court in early August to make final arguments.

Olivo, however, represented the challengers who ran in the April election.

And it was Bruce Malkenhorst Jr., who as Vernon city clerk, decided not to count the ballots in the election.

During the court case on the election, Malkenhorst Jr. argued that the city disqualified the candidates because they didn’t live in Vernon. The challengers, in turn, accused the city of harassing them and having them followed by private investigators.

On the stand, Malkenhorst Jr. said he had a “bad feeling” from the moment the challengers came to City Hall to pick up nomination papers, based on their “general appearance.”

Malkenhorst Jr. said they looked “nervous.” Olivo asked whether this may have been because there were security guards standing nearby.

Superior Court Judge Aurelio Munoz said in court that he didn’t believe that people moved into Vernon and only later decided to run for office. But he also said that moving into a city with the intent of taking over political power isn’t necessarily illegal.

“I’m convinced ... there’s too much coincidence. People suddenly move in, suddenly register, suddenly become candidates,” Munoz said. “But, like I said before, is that enough to void registration? It’s in the tradition of grand old politics, I think, in the United States. You go in and you try to steal an election.”

At least, Munoz added, “there weren’t any graves counted this time, like it’s been alleged has happened in other elections.”