13 years in federal prison for ex-LA Councilman José Huizar in pay-to-play corruption case

By FRED SHUSTER

LOS ANGELES — Disgraced former L.A. City Councilman José Huizar was sentenced Friday to 13 years in federal prison for using his powerful position at City Hall to shake down real estate developers for at least $1.5 million in cash and benefits in exchange for help driving downtown real estate projects through the city’s approval process, and for cheating on his taxes.

Huizar, 55, of Boyle Heights, “made a business of his public office at the expense of the citizens of Los Angeles,” U.S. District Judge John Walter said from the bench before imposing sentence.

Huizar sat stonily during the two-hour hearing in downtown Los Angeles, briefly addressing the court to apologize to his family and former constituents. He said he hoped others in public office would take heed of his current situation.

The judge gave Huizar until April 30 to begin serving his sentence. Along with the prison term, Walter ordered restitution of $443,905 payable to the city of Los Angeles and the Internal Revenue Service, with $50,000 due immediately. Huizar must also serve three years of supervised release following prison.

The former councilman pleaded guilty a year ago to federal counts of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and tax evasion in a sprawling criminal probe that ensnared lobbyists, consultants and other city officials and staffers, who sought to personally enrich themselves and their families and associates in exchange for official acts, authorities said.

Walter called the defendant “one of the most corrupt officials of the last several years.” The judge added that Huizar yearned to “live the good life, as enjoyed by the wealthy developers” he unlawfully did business with.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who served on the council with Huizar for several years, reacted by gesturing to other councilmembers in a hearing room at the Van Nuys City Hall where the council was holding its meeting on Friday, and said, “As angry as I am about what he did – angry about the betrayal of the public trust, betrayal of all of us here, betrayal to the public – I’m so enraged by what he did.”

But, he went on, “At the same time, I know he’s a person with kids, wife. And so on a personal level I feel bad that this man is going to be spending the next decade of his life not seeing his kids grow up. But justice needs to be done. And what he did is beyond horrible.”

Van Nuys resident Quirino De La Cuesta, who was attending the city council meeting on Friday said, “I don’t (wish) ill on anyone, but he did the crime. He has to do the time. If he did the crime, he has to take accountability. I feel sad for his family.”

Huizar represented Council District 14, which includes downtown Los Angeles and its surrounding communities, from 2005 until his resignation in 2020. According to his lawyers, Huizar was “an evangelist for robust development” in efforts to ensure Los Angeles was befitting of a “world-class city.”

In his plea agreement, Huizar admitted to leading the so-called CD-14 Enterprise, which operated as a pay-to-play scheme in which Huizar — assisted by others — illegally used his office to give favorable treatment to real estate developers who financed and facilitated cash bribes, campaign donations and other illicit benefits.

“For years, defendant operated his pay-to-play scheme in the city of Los Angeles to monetize his public position and leverage his political clout for over $1.5 million dollars in cash bribes, gambling chips, luxury trips, political contributions, prostitutes, extravagant meals, services, concerts and other gifts,” according to a memo filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. “If anyone dared rebuff his call to pay bribes, he punished them and their city projects, threatening developers with indefinitely delayed projects and financial peril.”

In his guilty plea, Huizar admitted accepting a $600,000 bribe payment in the form of a “loan” from China-based billionaire real estate developer Wei Huang for use to secretly settle a pending sexual harassment lawsuit against Huizar by a former staffer.

Huang’s downtown Los Angeles-based company was found guilty in 2022 of paying more than $1 million in bribes — including luxury trip expenses, casino gambling chips and the sham loan — to the then-councilman to obtain city approval to build a 77-story mixed-use skyscraper downtown. Huang, who owns a house in San Marino, was also charged in the case but is considered a fugitive believed to be in China, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Due to the scheme, development in the downtown area “is now tainted because of this defendant,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mack Jenkins told the court Friday.

Huizar’s attorney, Charles Snyder, arguing for a nine-year sentence, told the court that his client grew up in poverty in rural Mexico, eventually earned a law degree from UCLA, and was elected to the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District and in 2005 to a seat on the L.A. City Council.

“What makes this case sad is the element of what could have been,” Snyder said.

Defendants in the case include George Esparza, Huizar’s former special assistant, real estate development consultant George Chiang, political fundraiser Justin Jangwoo Kim, and lobbyist Morrie Goldman, among others. Each pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation.

“Five years from now, the only people who will remember whether Mr. Huizar got 9, 10 or 13 years will be the parties and his family, the latter of whom will grow up, grow old and die in his absence,” Huizar’s attorneys wrote in court papers. “For everyone else, specific memories will fade, and even with a nine-year sentence, the lasting message will be that Mr. Huizar confessed and received a lengthy term in prison.”

Huizar’s co-defendant, former Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan, who was general manager of the Department of Building and Safety before becoming the city’s deputy mayor of economic development, was charged with racketeering conspiracy, bribery, honest services fraud and other counts for allegedly helping Huizar in the bribery scheme.

Chan’s trial is set for Feb. 27. A mistrial was declared in his first trial after his attorney, Harland Braun, was taken ill and could not continue appearing in court.

In a related case, Huizar’s brother, Salvador Huizar, 57, of Boyle Heights, pleaded guilty in October 2022 to lying to federal investigators about accepting cash from his brother on numerous occasions and immediately writing checks back to him or arranging to pay his expenses. Salvador Huizar’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for August.

“No one is above the law,” said Martin Estrada, the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles. “Today’s sentence shows that even a powerful elected official like Huizar will be held accountable for engaging in criminal misconduct. Huizar was elected to serve the interests of the hard-working people of Los Angeles, but he instead served his own personal interests in a long-running, pay-to-play, bribery scheme. Our community deserves better.”

Los Angeles Daily News reporter Linh Tat contributed to this report.