Sentencing Date Delayed for Bell Scandal Trial

By City News Service

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Pending a retrial, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge refused today to set a sentencing date for five former elected officials in Bell who were convicted of bilking thousands of dollars from the town of about 35,000 people just southeast of downtown.

Judge Kathleen Kennedy said sentencing could be put off until former Bell Mayor Oscar Hernandez and ex-City Council members George Mirabal, Teresa Jacobo, George Cole and Victor Bello are retried on certain charges.
 
"The sentence might be different, depending on how many counts are involved,'' Kennedy said.
 
All three were convicted in March of misappropriating public funds by collecting exorbitant salaries. But jurors deadlocked on a handful of counts and Kennedy declared a mistrial on those charges.

Prosecutors are set to retry the five on those counts. They argued today that sentencing would expedite any potential appeal on the first set of charges and allow for a more efficient process overall.

But Kennedy rejected what she called a "piecemeal approach'' and instead set a date for another pretrial hearing on Oct. 4, with an eye toward a second trial early next year.

The judge also raised the possibility of a years-long appeals process.

"Who's to say the California Supreme Court won't be involved,'' Kennedy asked, noting that an appeal to the state's highest court might take four years to resolve.

On March 20, Hernandez, Jacobo and Mirabal were each convicted of five counts of misappropriation of public funds and acquitted of five others. Cole was convicted of two counts and acquitted of two others, while Bello was convicted of four counts and acquitted of four others.

The panel completely exonerated former Councilman Luis Artiga of all 12 counts against him.

Deputy District Attorney Edward Miller told jurors during the trial that the officials misappropriated public funds by collecting unlawful salaries for sitting on four city boards -- the Community Housing Authority, Surplus Property Authority, Public Financing Authority and Solid Waste and Recycling Authority -- that rarely met.

Defense attorneys maintained their clients were wrongly accused, arguing they worked diligently for the city and earned their salaries.

Former City Manager Robert Rizzo, who is accused of being the mastermind of the alleged corruption scheme, is awaiting trial separately, along with former assistant Angela Spaccia. Defense attorneys in that case have argued for a change of venue and a hearing on the matter is set for Aug. 28.