A Day in and out of Court with prison-bound Los Angeles Councilman Jose Huizar

Gentle reader,

You have to get up pretty early to see disgraced former Los Angeles City councilman Jose Huizar sentenced in Federal Court for racketeering and tax evasion—and even then, the line at the courthouse snaked almost to the street when we arrived.

The crowd was not all there to watch the once mighty Eastside politician learn his fate, but it took nearly an hour for all of us to pass through the airport-style security station.

We had brought some reading matter for the wait: a fancy pamphlet from the Pershing Square redesign competition sponsored by the sketchy nonprofit that Huizar ran out of his CD14 office. It was Huizar’s 2014 lie to Kim’s face that the original John Parkinson plan for the park would be one of the options for which the public could vote that made him Public Enemy #1 in our eyes and inspired a lot of our anti-corruption and preservation advocacy. Then when he rewrote our Los Angeles Times landmarking nomination—that’s the Times behind us in the photo above—it was war.

Anyway, we got up pretty early, so we were only a little late, and there were still seats in Judge John F. Walter’s courtroom 7-A when we slipped in about 8:15am. Cellphones confirmed to be powered down by the bailiff, we took our spots in the second row, left side, behind the courtroom artist (no cameras allowed) and alongside Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Strefan Fauble, author of the City’s Victim Impact Statement.

This day of reckoning was a long time coming. Huizar was first raided by the FBI in November 2018, but not indicted until July 2020. He maintained his innocence until January 2023 when he pleaded guilty. His sentencing was then continued four times, from April 3 to September 25 to December 15. So many continuances is very unusual. But today was the day.

Assistant United States Attorney Mack E. Jenkins, Chief of the Criminal Division, was making his case for an audience of one: the judge who has been on this from the start, in addition to handling the multiple land use corruption and money laundering cases tied to Huizar’s: Dae Yong Lee and his 940 Hill LLC, fugitive from justice Wei Huang and his Shen Zhen New World I LLC, former deputy mayor Raymond She Wah Chan, and lobbyist/bundler/fixers Justin Jangwoo Kim, Morris “Morrie” Roland Goldman, George Chiang, Huizar staffer George Esparza and the councilman’s brother Salvador Huizar.

Jose Huizar, Jenkins told Judge Walter, was like King Kong, and his power and influence was such that when he came crashing to earth, he brought down buildings and crushed helpless people on the ground below. He’s caused great harm to the city: give him a meaningful sentence of 13 years.

We noticed something odd when Jenkins turned things over to the defense. Huizar’s public defense team has gotten smaller, but its senior member Cuauhtemoc Ortega is still on the case. Yet although we later saw him leaving the courthouse with his colleagues, the experienced public defender wasn’t in court to defend Huizar.

Both attorneys flanking Huizar were young men, with lead attorney Charles Schneider inclined to bloviate, and the judge soon became visibly annoyed with his rehashing the councilman’s oft-shared tale of ascension from rural poverty in Zacatecas to bootstraps education and public service, citing the many letters of support filed with the court and his children’s need for their father in their lives. Also, he had accepted responsibility for his crimes.

The judge reminded them that he had read all this material before—and it took him a lot of time to read it. As for acknowledgement of guilt, just last month they had filed Appendix A with the court, casting blame on staffer George Esparza and other co-conspirators for Huizar’s downfall.

If the defendant now understood that it wasn’t appropriate to point fingers at the FBI or co-conspirators, swell, but it took him long enough.

The judge recalled that when Huizar was first indicted several years ago, he had private representation. Those lawyers had negotiated with the government—presumably on a “queen for a day” proffer agreement intended to root out other crooks in City Hall—but ultimately he decided to reject that path, deny his guilt and go with the public defenders.

The defense took up their case again, listing recent public corruption cases from New York to Chicago and suggesting that nobody else was facing as long a potential prison sentence as Huizar. Then it was back to the character witnesses, blah blah blah about the nice letters, Huizar’s importance in the lives of vulnerable family members, and how they didn’t blame him for all the pain he had caused them, because they know that wasn’t his intention.

Up on the bench, Judge Walter appeared to be biting the inside of his cheek to keep from spacing out entirely.

And hey, how about Paul Paradis, the dirty LADWP contract lawyer who cooperated with the Feds? The government only asked for 18 months and no restitution. (He got a significantly longer sentence, and made quite a scene in court.)

Up on the bench, Judge Walter yawned and closed his eyes.

C’mon judge, 9 years, 13 years, either sentence is a deterrent, give the guy a break. He’s been dragged through the public square which is part of the government’s strategy, he’s going to prison, he’ll come out with no prospects. Isn’t that enough? It would be the longest sentence ever imposed on a Los Angeles official.¹

“And one more thing—”

The judge had had enough. “No one more thing! I’ve let you go over half an hour. You can have two more minutes!”

Schneider wrapped it up: five years ago, Jose Huizar was King Kong. Today he is the poster boy for corruption. Five years from now, only his family will remember any of this.

Wrong. Jose Huizar is a part of Los Angeles noir history, and the story of his greed and hubris and the negative effect on our city needs to be told. That’s why we’ve incorporated him into our Broadway: Downtown Los Angeles’ Beautiful, Magical Mess walking tour which is happening tomorrow, Saturday January 27, and we spotted The Sellout’s Carla Green and Mariah Castaneda in the courthouse working on a new episode of the podcast.

The only job of the public defenders in court this morning was to give Judge Walter a reason to chip away at the sentencing guidelines, a few months, a few years. Schneider and Adam Olin failed, and we think defendant Jose Huizar, a disbarred attorney, must have realized this as he got up and croaked a few words, accepting responsibility and apologizing to his family and the city.

We barely recognized his affect—this was not the confident, swaggering politician who loved to hear himself speak. What happened to that guy? (We’d find out soon enough.)

Mack Jenkins stood and told the judge that the government had plenty to say, but only if the judge wanted to hear it. Judge Walter said he’d prefer not to. Laughter in the courtroom. Jenkins took the hint.

And then it was time for The Judge Walter Show. He dotted every i and crossed all ts as he laid out Jose Huizar’s political career in negative: his brazen pay to play corruption, how he became more emboldened with each crooked land use deal, how in so doing, he grew rich while denying citizens the right to his honest services, how he made a business of his public office at the expense of the people.

He talked about the two lengthy Appendix files submitted in lieu of a trial defense. The 185 page Appendix A was covered in our last newsletter—that’s the one that seeks to hold staffer George Esparza responsible for Huizar’s crimes, through the evidence of many profane text messages.

Appendix B is 358 pages long—mainly dry City Planning documents—and seeks to justify Huizar’s votes for the controversial Arts District tower Alloy at 520 South Mateo Street erected by cooperating developer Carmel Partners by throwing lobbyist Morrie Goldman and political consultant Michael Trujillo to the wolves.

There’s some nutty stuff in there about the conspirators panicking when Dakota Smith of the Los Angeles Times was asking questions about Carmel, as developers of the Cumulus project in Herb Wesson’s South Los Angeles district, contributing to the campaign of San Fernando Valley councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, plus shout outs to councilman Gil Cedillo of Parker Center demolition infamy and to labor union aggregator CREED.

Much of Appendix B is filed under seal, and we can only hope the judge had access to a more cohesive document than the public does. He implied that Huizar used Appendix B to deny that his crooked votes were responsible for the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles. But despite the spin, the Matteo project still had far less affordable housing in it after he accepted bribes. The judge quoted a Carmel executive boasting that getting a 35 story tower approved was “truly amazing” in a “wealthy opinionated hipster community” like the Arts District, which sparked some queasy laughter from the trial observers.

Whatever is in there, it wasn’t enough. Although “interesting and helpful to the court,” ultimately the defendant was the only elected official in this case, and therefore none of the crimes could have been perpetrated without his direct action, through corrupt votes at the PLUM Committee and at full City Council.

Nowhere in Appendix A does he go into detail on his own criminal activity. Instead, he claims he was good for Los Angeles. That “Robin Hood attitude” completely misses the point and shows he lacks self-awareness. It appears to the court that the intent in submitting Appendix A was seeking revenge and to punish his co-conspirators. Huizar doesn’t need to worry: they will be punished.

Then to the sentencing itself. Again, we heard the beats of Huizar’s life story. Mention of the positive letters—and a glancing reference to a less positive letter very recently received, likely Kenneth Walsh’s heartbreaking account of constituent neglect, arson and cancer. But then Huizar rose to power and was courted by wealthy developers and labor unions. He wanted to get rich. He drank and gambled, and showed none of the character or courage that he had as a young man.

The court agrees he is a redeemable, if flawed, individual. But he didn’t do his job. He was elected to serve the public, and gets no special credit for the times that he did so. The judge references a video submitted under seal, and the severe mental health issues experienced by some members of the family. This is a shame, but does not mitigate the sentence he’s earned.

At this point, Jose Huizar did something outrageous. If we hadn’t been in a courtroom, we would have turned to each other and yelled What the hell is he doing?!

All of the lawyers and Huizer were gathered around a horseshoe table facing in, so they mostly looked at their notes or laptop screens, sometimes turning their heads to watch the judge. Now defendant Huizar rotated his chair, turned his back on his lead attorney, and stared straight at Judge Walter.

A pal in law enforcement who we later briefed observed, “Trying to stare down the judge. Always a smart move in Federal court!”

Judge Walter was not intimidated. He observed that white collar crimes seem to get lesser punishment, but it’s important to send a message with a strict sentence. This will discourage other politicians from straying, and give the voting public some confidence in the process.

He quoted President Obama's farewell address, “America, we weaken those ties when we allow our political dialogue to become so corrosive that people of good character aren’t even willing to enter public service." (We’ve been saying this about the goons we encounter in City Hall for almost twenty years.)

He agreed with the government that the comparisons to other corruption sentences drew on irrelevant data and did not actually serve to aid Huizar’s defense. There are no meaningful comparisons to other cases due to the extent of Huizar’s corruption. He is “in a league of his own”—King Kong, if you will.

Then he turned to the matter of restitution, some to the City of Los Angeles, some to the IRS. He quoted from the City Attorney’s Victim Impact Letter, and one of Huizar’s defense attorneys put his head in his hands.

He quoted President Theodore Roosevelt, his words as true today as in 1903: "He is worse than the thief, for the thief robs the individual, while the corrupt official plunders an entire city or State. He is as wicked as the murderer, for the murderer may only take one life against the law, while the corrupt official and the man who corrupts the official alike aim at the assassination of the commonwealth itself."

The court must act as the voice of the community. Corruption erodes democracy. A substantial sentence is required.

Then to the specifics of restitution, and it was kind of perfect. The case was ending just as it began, with Jose Huizar scrambling over money. His ex-wife had received the house, and he was cashing out his $140,000 retirement fund. He wanted to hold that back to pay for some family crisis, but the judge didn’t want to hear about it, and refused to let the defense confer with their client. Of the restitution to the City of Los Angeles of $443,905 and to the IRS of $38,792.41, a partial payment of $50,000 was to be paid immediately, and he was to pay no less than $25/quarter from his prison earnings.

Then to the sentence. Huizar sought 9 years. The judge gave him the maximum, 13 years, specifically 156 months for Count 1 (racketeering) in the First Superseding Indictment and a concurrent 60 months for Count 41 (tax evasion), followed by three years of supervised release. It’s Federal time, so he’ll do almost all of it. He can go home today, and will need to self-surrender in the near future.

His lawyers asked if he could be sent to Lompoc—a low security Federal facility for which our court watcher friends think he might be too great of a flight risk. Mack Jenkins says the government is okay granting him 60 days. The defense asks for six months. He’s not a flight risk, he won’t appeal, the sealed document explains why he needs the time.

Judge Walter was quiet for a very long beat, and then ruled: Jose Huizar must turn himself in by 2pm on April 30. That’s Walpurgisnacht, a significant date in the pagan calendar, thought we have no reason to think the judge adheres to that faith.

And this is where we might have left it, except that we just watched the 5 o’clock NBC-4 news. And turning to stare at the judge wasn’t the only outrageous thing that Jose Huizar did today. He went directly from the courthouse—where friendly bailiffs removed a Los Angeles Times reporter from his elevator, then let him sneak out the back door to avoid the media scrum out front—and met reporter John Cádiz Klemack for an exclusive interview on the Sixth Street Bridge!

Gone was the weak, barely audible voice with no Eastside accent we’d strained to hear in the courtroom. Gone, too, any hint of contrition. Granted three months of freedom by a judge who could have sent him to prison this morning, Huizar has the audacity and arrogance to stand on the bridge that leads directly to the corrupt Matteo tower that’s central to his conviction and say “This process painted a picture of someone who I am not. I know who I am… I love this city, I love my constituents. I hope I didn’t let them down.”

Jose, that’s all you did!

To quote the terrible public defense on display today, one last thing: we’re so pleased to be in the Times of London today, ostensibly talking about the landmarking of Marilyn Monroe’s house, but also calling out the land use corruption that continues to poison the city we love, years after Huizar was removed from power.

The Times story is behind a paywall, so we’ll share our quotes here:

“This is a snapshot of everything that is wrong with Los Angeles,” says Richard Schave, who runs a tour company with his wife, Kim Cooper. He also campaigns to preserve local landmarks. Schave says that over the past five years, Los Angeles officials have become too willing to approve the demolition of older homes, which are replaced by apartment blocks and “McMansions” — the mass-produced suburban homes that are marketed to America’s middle class. He laments the understated architectural gems the city has lost, citing the Lytton Savings bank, a modernist Hollywood landmark with a concrete zigzag roof that was bulldozed in 2021. “There’s too much money to be made in tearing everything down and having people get financing for giant projects that increase the property tax,” he says. Cooper agrees: “The city has chosen money over preserving its architectural jewels and protecting the quality of life and the rights of its citizens.”

And one more, one more thing. As we left the courthouse, we took Sunset / Cesar Chavez, passing by the monument to the Bracero temporary workers who used to come to California from Mexico—Huizar’s grandfather supposedly helped dig the foundation for City Hall, though we’ve always been skeptical of so perfect a narrative hook—that Huizar unveiled a year after the FBI raided his City Hall office.

Somebody selfish or desperate has stolen the monument plaque to melt it down for scrap. And thus, the most visible civic monument to Jose Huizar’s reign of terror has been erased. We hear that he still has one plaque dedicated to him, down by the River under the bridge where he gave his interview, in a pocket park where sewage gas is processed.

Tomorrow’s tour, as you already know, is Broadway: Downtown Los Angeles’ Beautiful, Magical Mess Walking Tour. And we’ve added new tours into June, with three that are all new: Charles Bukowski’s Westlake Walking Tour (Sat. 5/11), Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice Walking Tour (Sat. 5/18) and POP – Preserving Our Past Downtown Los Angeles Walking Tour (Sat. 6/1). All the links are below or on our website. Join us, do!

Yours for Los Angeles,

Kim & Richard

Esotouric

Psst… If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar and a subscriber edition of this newsletter, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking and bus tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.

---

UPCOMING BUS & WALKING TOURS

• Broadway: Downtown Los Angeles’ Beautiful, Magical Mess Walking Tour (Sat. 1/27) • Bunker Hill, Dead and Alive Walking Tour (Sat. 2/3) • Westlake Park Time Travel Trip Walking Tour (Sat. 2/10) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue Time Travel Trip Walking Tour (Sat. 2/17) • The Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour (Sat. 2/24) • SOLD OUT Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels To Towers To The Dutch Chocolate Shop Walking Tour (Sat. 3/16) • The Run: Gay Downtown History Walking Tour (Sat. 3/23) • Franklin Village Old Hollywood Walking Tour (Sat. 3/30) • John Fante’s Downtown Los Angeles Birthday Walking Tour (Sat. 4/6) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles Walking Tour (Sat. 4/13) • Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher Cases Walking Tour (Sat. 4/20) • Downtown Los Angeles is for Book Lovers Walking Tour (Sat. 4/27) • Alvarado Terrace & South Bonnie Brae Tract Time Travel Trip Walking Tour (Sat. 5/4) • Charles Bukowski’s Westlake Walking Tour (Sat. 5/11) • Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice Walking Tour (Sat. 5/18) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 Walking Tour (Sat. 5/25) • POP – Preserving Our Past Downtown Los Angeles Walking Tour (Sat. 6/1)

1. Well, kind of. District Attorney Asa Keyes was sentenced to 1 to 14 years in San Quentin for taking bribes, but parole and pardon cut his sentence to three years.