More than 1,000 pages of confidential documents from a federal criminal investigation into the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office and the Department of Water and Power will be unsealed, a federal judge announced Friday.
The Times and Consumer Watchdog had requested the documents to better understand the government’s criminal case and whether former City Atty. Mike Feuer was responsible for a scandal involving a show trial and an extortion plot. Feuer has long denied any wrongdoing.
In a preliminary ruling, U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. said the documents, which consist primarily of dozens of search warrants filed during the government investigation, would be unsealed and personal data redacted.
The names of public officials, as well as those of individuals who are “wrongdoers,” will not be redacted, Blumenfeld said at a hearing Friday – a blow to prosecutors who had sought to withhold the names of public officials.
The Times and Consumer Watchdog are expected to work with the U.S. attorney’s office to prepare documents for release in the coming weeks.
Much of Friday’s hearing focused on Feuer and whether an FBI agent’s alleged claims that Feuer lied to a grand jury and the FBI should be redacted.
The FBI agent’s alleged comments, made in an affidavit for a search warrant, were revealed in court by a defendant, Paul Paradis, during his sentencing in November.
Paradis, a former lawyer turned cooperating witness for the federal government, pleaded guilty to accepting a kickback of nearly $2.2 million from another lawyer working on the DWP case and was sentenced to 33 months in prison. prison.
Paradis had ingratiated himself with City Hall, befriending the city’s top officials. An outside attorney from New York, he was retained by Feuer’s office to assist with DWP-related litigation and then obtained separate contracts at the DWP.
He later secretly recorded senior city officials and was present when armed officers raided the home of DWP chief executive David Wright, who is serving a six-year sentence after conspiring to award Paradis a contract lucrative.
Jerry Flanagan, an attorney for Consumer Watchdog and the Times, told Blumenfeld that the FBI agent’s comments constituted an “opinion” that was not subject to federal rules requiring grand jury information to remain confidential. Flanagan also argued that “the cat is out of the bag” because Paradis publicly revealed the alleged comments.
Blumenfeld appeared keen to protect the secrecy of the grand jury process and said he would rule on the matter later.
Feuer said he had no knowledge of any crimes. In a 2022 letter, the U.S. Attorney’s Office told Feuer he was not a target in their criminal investigation.
Asked by The Times last November about the FBI agent’s alleged statements, Feuer pointed to the 2022 letter.
Feuer also told The Times last year that he gave his phone to the U.S. attorney’s office in 2020, but that investigators did not search his home or office.
A former state Assemblyman and Los Angeles City Council member, Feuer ran for Los Angeles mayor in 2022 but dropped out shortly before the primary. Last month, he finished fourth in the primary for the congressional seat vacated by Rep. Adam B. Schiff.
The 1,400 pages of search warrants and other documents requested by the Times and Consumer Watchdog were issued between 2019 and 2021.
Court documents filed by prosecutors in the criminal case clearly show that some people, including city officials who remain anonymous in the documents, participated in or knew about various schemes.
Only four people were ultimately charged, and prosecutors declared their cases closed last year.
The criminal proceedings centered on a class-action lawsuit filed in 2015 by DWP customers over massive errors caused by a new billing system at the utility.
The lawsuit was secretly drafted by Paradis, then working for Feuer’s office, who assigned the lawsuit to an outside attorney to file a lawsuit against the city.
The goal, according to prosecutors, was to settle all claims from DWP’s various clients on terms favorable to the city.
Prosecutors also uncovered other unethical and illegal schemes, including an illicit payment involving the city attorney’s office.
Blumenfeld said during Friday’s hearing that he expected one person’s name, Julissa Salgueiro, would not be redacted in search warrants and other documents.
“MS. Salgueiro is a criminal par excellence,” Blumenfeld said, explaining why his name should not be redacted.
Prosecutors have never named or charged Salgueiro, but their court documents refer to a former employee of a Beverly Hills law firm who threatened to expose the city’s collusive lawsuit over DWP billing errors.
The employee had “stolen or improperly preserved” documents showing the collusive lawsuit and demanded money for their return, prosecutors said in court documents.
Thomas Peters, one of Feuer’s top aides, was charged with aiding and abetting extortion after being ordered by unnamed city staff to heed the employee’s threats, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors never charged any other high-ranking member of the city attorney’s office.
After pleading guilty, Peters was sentenced to nine months of house arrest and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.
Salgueiro’s attorney, William Pitman, told the Times on Friday that he “respectfully disagrees with Judge Blumenfeld’s opinion.” His client has never been charged or indicted and has no criminal history, he said.
“Regarding the unsealing motion, Ms. Salguiero was never informed (of the matter),” Pitman said.
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