Why the City Shouldn't Have to Pay the Legal Fees to Defend Crooked Politicians and Their Directors?

Manuel Carrillo aka Manuel Carrillo Jr.
Baldwin Park's Crooked Parks and Recreation Director

Last week, the Court of Appeals came down with a ruling that stated that the City could pay the attorney's fees of a sham non-profit corporation because it was the same entity (or in other words an alter-ego) of the City. You can read a simplified version of the opinion here: Court of Appeals Results - the Good and the Bad. The City's payment of unlimited defense funds for crooks promotes greed, corruption, the rotting of democracy, and harm to those who are trying to do the right thing.

For those of you who don't know, for years, the boxers have been complaining that the Directors of Parks and Recreation (photo below), has been running an alter-ego non-profit corporation. In simple English that means, he's taken over a fake corporation, which he says does good for the world, to really steal money from the city bank account and take in bribe money. Then at the end of the year, he redistributes everything back to himself in the form of Walmart Gift Cards.

For speaking out, Carrillo fired Julian Casas, head boxing coach. He worked there for 20 years. He also punished Julian by giving him a 40 cent an hour raise after 14 years.

Against me, the lawyer who sued for more information regarding this sham corporation, I was arrested, jailed, strip-searched, and had a temporary restraining order filed against me. Manny Carrillo and Mayor Manuel Lozano wanted us, to shut up, and let them steal all the money they could.

So, Julian gets a 40 cent an hour raise, but Carrillo and Lozano take expensive fine dining trips on taxpayer money all over the world. That's our money.

Before, I go on. I want you to make a mental list of everything you can't stand about government. Maybe, it's the burdensome student loans you have. Maybe, it's that you don't get paid enough with your social security. Whatever it is, the cause of all our problems, comes from the Carrillos, Lozanos, and Robert Rizzos of the world stealing our money. When they steal our money to wine and dine on, it forces them to give us less (usually in the form of services) and then, to support their lavish and excessive lifestyle, they have to take more from us (whether that be in the raising of taxes, the taking of vehicles of the undocumented immigrants, or the stealing of our property.)

Civil and criminal prosecution is a good stop to all this, meaning it's good to throw the thieves into prison (like Robert Rizzo) or it's good to sue them so they have to pay back the taxpayer when they steal money from us. But Carrillos, Rizzos, and Lozanos of the world hate accountability. So what do they do?

Well, they ask for the City to pay their defense fees, even though they've been caught. And did Carrillo, Rizzo, and Lozano all ask for this. I think so. The question is why should we pay for their lawyers and the damages that result from their theft when they're guilty of ripping us off?

And that's exactly the question that took about two years to arrive at the Court of Appeals. The Court, although it wisely decided that Carrillo was indeed running a fake non-profit corporation, found that Cities can pay the attorney's fees for this type of business.

The law needs to change because us paying for Carrillo or Rizzo or Lozano's defense fees leads to them not paying personally for the bad act that they've committed. And we all need to be held personally accountable.

Furthermore, because these crooks could keep getting away from accountability, they keep trying to steal from us. Look at Carrillo. He laundered money this Christmas through the City general fund this year. He's also trying to start another sham non-profit. And on top of all that, I hear he's trying to rehire the same criminal (who he gave advice to to hide his record) to work with children again.

Look at Lozano. The small claims court said we couldn't hold him accountable for filing a frivolous lawsuit against me; so, he does it again to a small business owner - only six months later.

So we labor away, and they steal away. At the very least, the law should allow us to recover what they've taken - when they've been caught. Vladmir Putin once said, "Thieves must sit in prison." Seems right to me, because after being caught, the Carrillos, Rizzos, and Lozanos of the world just try again.