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Former LA councilman sentenced to 13 years for corruption

January 27, 2024

By KAREN VELIE

A federal judge sentenced former Los Angeles City Councilman José Huizar on Friday to 13 years in federal prison for using his elected position to shake down real estate developers, shining a light on the type of sentence former San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Adam Hill was facing for using similar tactics to enrich himself.

Huizar, who sat on the LA City Council from 2005 until his resignation in 2020, squeezed developers for for more than $1.5 million in cash and gifts to help move their projects through the approval process, prosecutors said. Huizar admitted, in a plea agreement, to operating a pay-to-play scheme that included cash bribes, campaign donations and gifts.

Since FBI agents raided Hill’s Shell Beach home and his office in the county government center in March 2020 as part of a corruption investigation, a marijuana mogul pleaded guilty to bribing Hill to move his projects forward and agents arrested a local developer for paying Hill to promote his projects.

While under the federal investigation, on Aug. 6, 2020, Hill committed suicide with an overdose of cocaine and antidepressants.

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José Huizar was blatant and reckless about being a criminal and a sexual harasser, yet it took many years to be prosecuted. Others of his ilk like supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas are just as bad. The sad part of this crappy behavior is that if they ran for office tomorrow, these worn out double speaking politicians would probably be re-elected. Why do people vote for the same crappy political leaders over and over again? Stop buying into political TV ads this year and read a news piece once in a while.


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