San Luis Obispo attorney accused of obstructing justice

June 10, 2025

Editor’s note: CalCoastNews is referring to developer Ryan Petetit, who changed his name to Ryan Wright during the case, as Ryan Petetit-Wright.

By KAREN VELIE

San Luis Obispo attorney John Belsher is suspected of obstructing justice in the ongoing federal investigation into corruption in SLO County, according to recently unsealed court records. Belsher allegedly worked with his partner to mislead the government regarding a bribe paid to a public official.

Belsher’s partner Ryan Petetit-Wright is in prison after he admitted conspiring with former SLO County Supervisor Adam Hill and others in a pay-to-play scheme. Belsher, Petetit-Wright and Hill conspired to obstruct justice, a practice the developers allegedly continued after Hill committed suicide, according to court records.

Belsher and Petetit-Wright went to great lengths to hide their alleged scheme to get Hill to illegally support their projects, according to court records. Belsher created San Luis Consulting LLC on July 10, 2014, which he then put in Hill’s name.

“To conceal the bribe payments and Hill’s connection to Petetit-Wright, Belsher, and PB
Companies – Petetit-Wright, Belsher, and Hill conspired to form San Luis Consulting, a company that would receive the payments,” according to prosecutors.

With Hill on the payroll, Belsher and Petetit-Wright’s PB Companies easily obtained building permits, as well as meetings with city and county staff and officials.

CalCoastNews exclusively reported in 2015 that Belsher and Petetit-Wright were paying Hill. Allegations Hill denied at the time.

In March 2020, following years of complaints from local business owners that Hill was demanding bribes for votes and assistance, FBI agents raided Hill’s Shell Beach home and his office in the county government center.

Three months later, in June 2020, the FBI served target letters on Belsher and Petetit-Wright explaining they were suspects in a criminal investigation.

Hill died from a drug overdose, which was deemed a suicide, on Aug. 6, 2020.

In early Feb. 2022, prosecutors provided Petetit-Wright and his counsel a reverse proffer describing the government’s evidence at the time, including a $10,000 wire transfer on Nov. 23, 2016 from PB Companies to Hill’s consulting company. It is unclear if Belsher was also provided a reverse proffer.

Shortly afterwards, on Feb. 17, 2022, Belsher sent an email to Petetit-Wright that included an Excel spreadsheet regarding the consultants who worked on their Orcutt Marketplace project in Santa Barbara County in 2015 and 2016. The spreadsheet Belsher sent Petetit-Wright did not include payments to Hill, according to court records.

Petetit-Wright emailed an edited version of the Orcutt Marketplace project spreadsheet to his criminal attorney firm Holland & Knight on Aug. 12, 2022. This version included five $2,000 invoices to Hill’s consulting company, which equals the $10,000 wire transfer to Hill.

The altered spreadsheet’s metadata indicated it was last edited on the evening of April 11, 2022, according to court records.

As part of their investigation, FBI agents interviewed Santa Barbara County supervisors Peter Adam and Steve Lavagnino, who said they had no recollection of ever talking to Hill about the Orcutt Marketplace project.

Text messages between Petetit-Wright and Hill about the $10,000 payment also provided evidence the money was unrelated to the Orcutt Marketplace project.

“The government’s investigation revealed that other than the self-serving statements of Belsher and Petetit-Wright’s counsel, there is no evidence Hill did substantial work for the Orcutt Marketplace,” according to prosecutors.

Federal prosecutors served Belsher a warrant for his and Petetit-Wright’s business records on Aug. 17, 2022, seeking records related to Hill’s consulting company.

Five days later, on Aug. 22, 2022, Petetit-Wright sent a copy of the altered Orcutt Marketplace project spreadsheet to his trust attorney Anne Cyr of Los Osos and to Belsher.

Belsher then sent a copy of the altered spreadsheet to PB Companies’ attorney Summa LLP. On Sept. 7, 2022, Summa provided the altered spreadsheet to federal prosecutors.

While PB Companies was completing its production of records, Belsher sat for a videotaped “interview” on Oct. 19 and Oct. 20, 2022 in which he said that the $10,000 wire to Hill’s consulting company was for work on the Orcutt Marketplace project, a tape Petetit-Wright’s new criminal attorney Isaacs Friedberg sent to the government.

“That videotaped interview was then submitted by Wright’s criminal attorney as part of an effort to convince the government not to charge the defendant because the $10,000
payment was unrelated to any of the real estate projects that comprise the bribery conspiracy,” according to court records.

Friedberg argued that the statute of limitations had run on the bribery charge because the $10,000 wire transfer in 2016 was for work outside of San Luis Obispo County.

FBI agents arrested Petetit-Wright on Oct. 30, 2023 on a three-count indictment charging him with conspiracy, falsification of records and obstruction of justice. He continued claiming the statute of limitations had run and that the final $10,000 payment to Hill was for work in Santa Barbara County.

On July 8, 2024, the government filed a motion to remove attorney client privilege regarding communications between Petetit-Wright, Belsher, Cyr, Friedberg and Summa LLP related to the government’s initial subpoena. The judge granted the motion on Aug. 12, 2024.

“When attorneys are involved in fraud and corruption, cases become much more difficult to prove,” according to the July 8, 2024 motion. “That is because the attorney-client privilege affords criminal defendants both the ability to shield their conduct and then attempt to exculpate it based on the advice of counsel.”

Several weeks after the judge approved the motion, Petetit-Wright admitted conspiring with others to deprive local citizens of honest services through a pay-to-play scheme. Petetit-Wright pleaded guilty to one criminal count: conspiracy. He was sentenced to five years in federal prison.

“The court finds that the Petetit-Wright attempted to obstruct the administration of justice by submitting to the government a falsified spreadsheet purporting to show that the $10,000 payment to the supervisor’s consulting company was for a project that was outside the scope of the bribery conspiracy,” according to the transcript of Petetit-Wright’s sentencing hearing. “The evidence demonstrates that even in the latter half of 2016, they were still trying to ‘funnel’ money to Supervisor Hill to conceal their continued influence over him and their bribery arrangement.”

While court filings refer to Belsher as Petetit-Wright’s co-conspirator, law enforcement agents have not arrested Belsher. The case remains open.

“Bribery of a public official is a serious offense and a serious threat to our democratic way of life,” the judge said during Petetit-Wright’s sentencing hearing. “As the government pointed out in its sentencing brief, bribery undermines the very principles upon which democracy is built and threatens to weaken the very fabric of our society.”

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