Of course, you'd never know that from reading the story from the left-wing news media establishment.
Posted on 03/22/2013 5:43:35 AM PDT by Uncle Chip
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Saying she feared "all hell" had broken loose among jurors, a judge declared a mistrial Thursday on dozens of remaining counts against five former elected officials who had been convicted the day before of looting a working-class Los Angeles suburb.
Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy took the action after the 12-member panel struggled to decide 42 counts against the former mayor and four former members of the Bell City Council.
On Wednesday, the panel convicted the five of a total of 21 counts of misappropriating public funds and acquitted them on 21 other counts. A sixth former official was acquitted of all charges.
The convictions were the first to come after revelations more than a year ago that Bell's leadership had illegally raised taxes, business license fees and other sources of income to pay huge salaries to the city manager, police chief, City Council members and others.
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The city of Bell has about 36,000 residents, with one in four people living below the poverty line.
As its manager, Rizzo had an annual compensation package of about $1.5 million. His salary alone was about $800,000 a year or twice that of the president of the United States. The six former City Council members were each paid about $100,000 a year.
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The convictions were all related to the money the five were paid for their service on Bell's Solid Waste and Recycling Authority, an entity prosecutors said was a sham agency created only to pay them money. Records show the authority met only one time between 2006 and 2010 and there was no evidence any waste was ever collected or recycled.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
It wouldnt surprise me if one or two members of the jury were dirty on this.
Why run the risk of robbing banks? The real money is stealing from the public treasury. It is apparently so rampant that I’m afraid we’ll need to start hanging some of them to put an end to it.
Does the mistrial declaration include the counts that were found guilty?.......
No.
Apparently the judge said “NO” — the 21 convictions are final.
The jury comes back with 21 guilty verdicts and 21 not guilty. So the judge says I accept the 21 guilty — now go back and reconsider the 21 not guilty.
I wonder how that is going to work for the one guy acquitted of all 12 of his charges.
One thing for sure — the judge took away their ability to horsetrade. Thanks for the 21 — not go back and get me the rest.
Of course, you'd never know that from reading the story from the left-wing news media establishment.
Eight Dems Arrested in Bell, CA ‘Corruption on Steroids’ - Not a Single Mention of Party Affiliation From Media
By Lachlan Markay | September 21, 2010 | 15:19
Today, eight city council members were arrested in Bell, California for what Los Angeles County District Attorney labeled “corruption on steroids.” Thus far, every major news outlet that has reported on the story has omitted the fact that all eight individuals arrested are Democrats.
These glaring omissions come only weeks after NewsBusters reported that of the 351 stories on the then-brewing controversy, 350 had omitted party affiliations, and one had mentioned they were Democrats only in apologizing for not doing so sooner.
ABC, CBS, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, USA Today, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and the San Francisco Chronicle all reported on the arrests today without mentioning party affiliations.
One commenter at CNN’s online story got it spot on: “I notice there is no mention of the party affiliation of the accused. I can find no mention of it in any story on the internet. This must mean they were all Democrats.”
Give the man a cigar.
Together, the eight city officials “misappropriated” $5.5 million in municipal funds. Robert Rizzo, the chief culprit, was arrested on 53 counts of various brands of corruption.
Before the scandal came to light, Rizzo had been making roughly $1.5 million per year, even though the per capita income in Bell is roughly half the national average.
Pedro Carillo, Bell’s interim city manager, released a statement on the arrests today:
“Given the sheer volume of charges levied against former Bell Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo and former Assistant CAO Angela Spaccia by the district attorney, it is clear that Rizzo and Spaccia were at the root of the cancer that has afflicted the City of Bell. Also, it is a sad day for Bell that four current and two former members of the council also have been arrested. I am prepared to double down our efforts to continue to restore order, establish good government reforms, and to ensure that Bell is providing needed services to its residents.”
Despite arrests in one of the most massive cases of municipal corruption in recent memory, no media outlet could bring itself to mention the officials’ party affiliations, a fact that has been widely reported since the scandal entered the national spotlight.
Yep they sure look like Democrap. That dude in the bottom row with darkish hair. OMG he looks like an ELF those big ear and wide eyes.
That was easy to figure out from this part of the article:
The defendants, many of whom took the witness stand during the trial, insisted they earned their salaries by working around the clock to help residents. They and their lawyers blamed Rizzo for creating the fiscal mess in Bell.
City council members pulling in $100,000/yr. They worked so hard for their bribe money but the mess was somebody else's.
They all look like they are from Mexico so its not surprising that they govern like they are from Mexico.
Democrats misappropriating some things never change.
I luv it. What does it take to show y’all that this nation is a goner. There will be no fair justice anymore. Take a look at the Supreme Court. The elites / New World Order have won.
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