Bell Gardens Councilman Indicted on Charges of Embezzling Campaign Funds

Bell Gardens Councilman Indicted
on Charges of Embezzling Campaign Funds

May 2, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Joe Scott, Director of Communications
Sandi Gibbons, Public Information Officer
Jane Robison, News Secretary
(213) 974-3525

LOS ANGELES – An indictment alleging that Bell Gardens City Councilman Mario Beltran embezzled campaign funds to pay his legal defense in a successful criminal prosecution of him last year was unsealed today when the defendant was arraigned in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Deputy District Attorney Max Huntsman of the Public Integrity Division (PID) said the 13-count criminal indictment was returned secretly by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury on Monday. It remained under seal until the 31-year-old public official was arraigned and pleaded not guilty before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steven R. Van Sicklen.

Although $125,000 bail was requested in the indictment, the judge set bond at $50,000 and gave Beltran a week to post it. Huntsman urged bond be set, noting some of the alleged crimes occurred while the councilman was on probation on last year’s conviction for filing a false police report. A jury in Downey convicted Beltran of the single misdemeanor count in March of last year. Three months later, he was placed on 36 months probation.

The current indictment comes after a hearing in which political and business leaders – alleged victims – testified before the grand jury. The eight felony charges include two counts of embezzlement of campaign funds, five counts of theft by false pretenses and one count of perjury. The five misdemeanor charges are violations of the Political Reform Act, including failure to deposit cash contributions and failure to report contributions and expenditures.

Huntsman said one embezzlement and the five theft charges involve Beltran alleging telling contributors that he was using the money he was raising for his re-election. Instead, it was alleged that the money was used pay for his legal defense.

The other embezzlement count and the perjury count allegedly involve using campaign funds to pay for a cell phone under another person’s name and failing to report it.

If convicted of the felony counts, the defendant faces possible maximum prison sentence of seven years and four months.

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