BUSD - Greg Sousa
PUBLIC RECORDS
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CAMPAIGN FINANCE
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Bankruptcy: Gregory Sousa and Loretta Beltran – U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of Calif. – 05-bk-20278
Filed: May 6, 2005
Case Type: Bankruptcy Chap. 7 (Liquidation)
Status: Completed
Summary: Gregory Sousa and his wife Loretta Beltran filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, which generally requires the debtors to liquidate all of their assets to pay back their creditors. The couple listed assets of about $38,000 and debts of about $142,000. However, they claimed essentially all of their assets were exempt from being taken from them, making it a so-called “no asset” case.
A trustee assigned to the case agreed, as did the court. The case was closed in December 2005.
Candidate Response: None received.
Criminal Case: People vs. Gregory Sousa – Burbank Superior Court – 1BR00771
Filed: March 14, 2011
Case Type: Criminal
Status: Guilty/Convicted, Appeal Pending
Summary: While dropping off his son at Providencia Elementary School on the morning of Feb. 11, 2011, Sousa got into an altercation with a woman he believed was driving too fast, court records state. While helping her 5-year-old daughter out of the car, Sousa approached the woman and allegedly said “What are you going to do now that you’re not so isolated?”
According to court documents, the woman asked him to leave and yelled for help, but no on responded. At that point, she pushed him away and, according to prosecutors, Sousa hit her in the face. One witness, however, stated in court that he wasn’t sure whether Sousa intended to strike the woman, as any contact might have been caused after she pushed him, throwing Sousa off balance.
Other witnesses said that the strike appeared intentional, and a jury convicted Sousa of assault and battery on school grounds (Penal Code sections 241.2(a) and 243.2) on Oct. 8, 2013, and a judge in Burbank Superior Court sentenced him to three years of probation, 15 days in jail, 25 days of community service and to complete a 52-week anger management program. The judge also kept in place a protective order for the victim, stating that Sousa was not to come within 25 yards of her.
In August of this year, the Burbank City Attorney’s Office, asked the court to extend the 25-yard stay-away order to 100 yards. Deana Chang, a deputy city attorney, noted a Burbank Police report that described “bizarre and aggressive behavior” toward Providencia staff on Jan. 27 and 28, 2014. This included “causing a disturbance in the front office, videotaping the staff and demanding ‘a statement’ from an underage student worker and becoming confrontational with the principal when she intervened.”
In response, Sousa noted that “bizarre behavior,” even if true, is not a criminal act, and does not qualify “as a valid ground for probation violation.” He also denied any aggressive behavior, and noted that videotaping on public grounds and expressing his opinions are protected by the First Amendment. Sousa further noted that the court imposed the 25-yard rule because both he and the victim’s children attend the same school, making 100 yards impractical.
The court agreed, and declined to modify the protective order.
He appealed the conviction to the appellate division of Los Angeles Superior Court – the venue that hears appeals of misdemeanor cases – arguing, in part, that his conduct did not rise to the level of battery under the law.
Candidate Response:
A situation developed that I wish I had handled differently. While I hope to be exonerated through the appeals process, I have learned from the experience, as it makes me rethink how I might handle such a situation today.
Protective Order: [Redacted] vs. Gregory Sousa – Van Nuys Superior Court – LQ014892
2nd District Court of Appeal – B248470
Filed: Jan. 8, 2013
Case Type: Permanent Injunction/Domestic Violence
Status: Petition Granted/Appeal Pending
Summary: A Sherman Oaks woman stated in court papers that she was in a dating relationship that “deteriorated to the point where [she] sought, and eventually obtained, a five year Permanent Injunction against Sousa.”
Sousa was estranged from his wife, Loretta Beltran, at the time of his relationship with the woman. In court papers, he states the relationship was a business one that became personal.
That relationship soured, the woman claimed in court documents, when Sousa showed up unannounced at her home, made multiple unwanted phone calls and text messages, and approached her at her daughter’s school with her dog’s ashes. She also claimed that Sousa had been following her, and that she was concerned for her safety.
Sousa, for his part, presented evidence that the woman asked him to care for the dog after it was hit by a car. After vets said nothing more could be done, and her then-boyfriend, Robert Brown, refused to euthanize the dog, Sousa stated the woman asked him to do it. He also stated that he was the emergency contact at the woman’s daughter’s school.
Brown, in a court filing, stated that the woman told him she had stopped seeing Sousa, but continued to do so. He also stated the woman told her she asked Sousa for money in exchange for her withdrawal from an earlier injunction case.
A Van Nuys Superior Court judge approved the petition on March 14, 2013. In her ruling, the judge stated she would have denied it if she was only to rely on the woman’s testimony, which the judge said was filled with inconsistencies. However, the judge stated the woman’s daughter, who was in elementary school at the time, was credible, and based her ruling primarily on her testimony.
Sousa appealed the decision to the 2nd District Court of Appeal.
In his appellate filing, Sousa states the woman wanted him to leave his wife, and told family and friends that she broke off the relationship when he declined to do so.
Despite this, Sousa claims she continued the relationship with him, concealing it from Brown. He claims the injunction was retaliation for his revealing the woman’s lies to Brown. Brown, he says, broke up with the woman on New Year’s Eve in 2012, and she filed the case against him about a week later.
Candidate Response:
In this situation, a misunderstanding with someone I regarded as a close friend resulted in litigation. I wish more could have been done to save the dog’s life, but that was not to be. In any event, I have also taken a valuable lesson from this situation.
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CAMPAIGN MAILERS/LITERATURE
None received.
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If any information here is incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete, please contact Editor Dan Evans at (818) 637-3234 or dan.evans@latimes.com.