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The California First
Amendment Coalition
salutes
WATCHOURCITY.COM
with its
2004
B EACON AWARD

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Report on
WatchOurCity.com

T erms of Use

A new collection of original short
stories from the editor of
WatchOurCity.com that revives the
Noir Pulp Fiction genre, with a Latino
twist, based on real-life shenanigans at
small-time local city halls where the
public record is stranger than fiction.

The intrigue, the corruption, the
comedy, the incompetence and every
policeman's ultimate fantasy of sex in a
donut shop.

CUT ME IN is a series of riveting stories
of bumbling and deeply flawed
characters - mobsters, fringe players,
petty thieves turned politicians turned
petty thieves - with dark agendas who
betray their honor, and the Public's
trust, on a dime's turn; at times
humorous and tragic; redemption is
always around the corner but flees
when tempted by small ambition; rare
moments of truth are discarded like
chump change, all played out over the
background both bleak and colorfully
gritty of a blue-collar immigrant town
in the shadows of the big city, a town
of second chancers, forgotten and
abused, but aching for a comeback...
tales with no moral lessons to
uncover, only everyday political dirty
dealings with the help of one lone hero,
Chucho* and his beloved low-rider.

The Editor presents:

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Links

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In The Public Interest .com

A gay
  Latino
   Mayor

with a lust

A convicted

for money,

cop,

and a hot

Latina

E nter Site

Steve Cooley,
L.A. County D.A.

Francisco Leal,
city slick attorney
at your service

Mario Beltran, indicted by
D.A.; was Huntington Park
councilman John Noguez's
campaign manager for the
2007 election. One week
after the election, was
convicted for filing a false
police report. Part of his
strategy to help Noguez
win reelection was to make
false claims that his
opponents were criminals.

The 740 Club in
Downtown L.A. in the
Historic Core District.
Gangsters and Latino
politicians love to hold
fundraisers here.

La Opinion Spanish Daily Newspaper, January 16, 2006: Mayor
Edward Escareno was found guilty and convicted of felony Grand
Theft. Edward Escareno was John Noguez' first ever campaign
manager during the 2003 election.

John Noguez, Huntington Park Councilman, likes to surround himself
with political criminals and gangsters in suits.

Noguez's 2nd campaign manager, Mario Beltran, was convicted in
March 2007 for filing a false police report in a case involving visits to
a prostitute in a seedy downtown hotel and later passing out drunk
in the hallway.

Beltran is now indicted by the D.A.'s office for embezzlement all while
on parole for his previous conviction.

During the 2007 elections, Noguez and his campaign manager Beltran
accused their opponents in political mailers of being criminals. One
week after Noguez was reelected, Beltran was convicted in Norwalk
Superior Court.

S enator Ron Calderon

Calderon's Senate District 30 includes much
of Southeast Los Angeles County cities such
as Bell, Bell Gardens, Cudahy, Huntington
Park, Commerce Montebello, South Gate,
Pico Rivera, and also La Mirada, Norwalk,
Santa Fe Springs and Whittier.

Calderon protected Mario Beltran and kept
him on his senate staff, even holding
fundraisers at home to benefit Beltran's
reelection campaign in Bell Gardens, during
his trial and after his conviction.

Senator Calderon lent his staffer Mario
Beltran to run John Noguez's March 2007
reelection campaign. Some accounts note
that Beltran worked on the Noguez
campaign while on the senate time-clock.
But that would be a minor ethical lapse
compared to current charges against the
good senator's favorite staffer. That pales in
comparison to current indictment charges of
embezzlement, all done while on parole on a
previous conviction from 2007, not to
mention that FBI investigation for his
dealings with tow truck operators.

Senator Ron Calderon hails from Montebello.
John Noguez also lived in Montebello even
as he held elective office here according to
public record evidence.

Ron Calderon and his brothers have a long
rap sheet in public service going back to the
early 80's. The Calderon brothers are
legendary with tales of corruption deep and
wide in Montebello and surrounding cities.

Mario Beltran
Convicted March
2007, Indicted
May 2008.

John Noguez &
his two campaign
managers.

Edward
Escareno
Convicted
December 2005.

CONVICTED

INDICTED

A courageously innovative, muckraking web site that focuses like a laser on the political, financial and legal shenanigans of the local government
California First Amendment Coalition

A Hot Latina
Rosario Marin

Rosario is the den mother of Huntington
Park politics. She is the political mentor to
all current Huntington Park council
members.

Rosario's first protege, Edward Escareno
was convicted of grand theft.

Rosario's second favorite protege, John
Noguez has done spectacularly well and
learned the master's lessons well.

Rosario and John Noguez are featured in a
book published by Wiley Press titled "Power
Mentoring: How Successful mentors and
Proteges get the most out of their
relationships". Marin and Noguez are one of
50 "Power" mentor-protege couples
mentioned.

One lesson she taught Noguez: how to raise
money. In May 2006, Noguez asked a charter
school operator for $50,000 in campaign
contributions in exchange for construction
project approval for Pacific Charter and
Aspire charter schools. The criminal
shakedown was made legit by the presence
of the Noguez good buddy and city attorney
Francisco Leal at a meeting held in the
California Club in Downtown L.A.

Rosario lives in Huntington Park, was the
former U.S. Treasurer appointed by
President Bush as a hack position; she is
also a former Huntington Park
councilwoman with a dubious public record.

Click to link to
Amazon.com.
Note: This site
does not profit
from linking to
Amazon.com or
any other 3rd
party site.

Map, 30th Senate
District,
California,
represented by
Ron Calderon.

Bell Gardens Corruption Watch:
Councilman Beltran Embezzlement
Charges
Mario Beltran is Arrested
and Booked on Felony
charges
Mario Beltran was arrested on
felony charges and booked on
Friday, May 16, 2008 by the
District Attorney's office. The
Booking Number is 1431304 (link
to L.A. County Sheriff's site). The
Bell Gardens councilman and
favorite staffer to State Senator
Ron Calderon was Huntington Park
Councilman John Noguez's
campaign Manager. Beltran is also
currently under investigation by
the FBI. John Noguez's other
campaign manager and roommate
was convicted in 2005 for Grand
theft of public funds. The editor
thanks the following for their
vigilance and tips: Bell Gardens
Corrupt, the Bell Residents Club
and City News 90201.

Friday May 23, 2008

Beltran

Noguez

Saturday May 17, 2008

L.A. City Beat report posted 5-21-08:
FBI vs. Bell Gardens Police Chief
F BI Serves Subpoenas
on Bell Gardens Police
Chief & City Officials in
Connection to Beltran
"The FBI made a visit to Bell Gardens City
Hall last week. They served Police Chief
Keith Kilmer and two other officials with
subpoenas for records in connection with
charges against Councilman Mario Beltran
and others accused of embezzlement in their
dealings with the United Motor Club, a tow
company whose contract with the city was
renewed in 2005, city sources said. Officials
from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI
have declined to comment on the nature of
the subpoenas delivered to Kilmer, Finance
Director Misty Cheng and City Manager John
Ornelas. Chief Kilmer reinstated [tow
company's contract], saying he did not see
any reason why the tow company’s shady
past was relevant."
See complete report at L.A. City Beat.

Monday May 12, 2008
Bell Gardens, Huntington Park and State Senator Ron Calderon:
The Boston Globe reports on corruption in these cities.
T aco Trucks, Steve Cooley and Corrupt
Politicos in Maywood, Bell Gardens &
Huntington Park; Gangsters in Suits
Editor's note: The following is a report published by the L.A. City Beat on
Thursday May 8, 2008. So, WatchOurCity.com has not been off the mark. The
mainstream media is finally catching up to 4 years of reporting by WatchOurCity.
com, since March of 2004. City Beat's report contains the following catch
phrases which are sure to pique the curiosity of this website's gentle readers,
and the not-so gentle: Corruption, City Attorney for Maywood and Huntington
Park Francisco Leal, State Senators Ron Calderon and Gil Cedillo, ongoing FBI
investigations, criminal indictments, Huntington Park, Mario Beltran, Cudahy.

The Boston Globe notes in a report from December 2, 2006: "Corruption Hits
Cities in L.A.'s Shadows": "A string of gritty suburbs in the shadow of Los Angeles
has produced a growing parade of public officials jailed for corruption, and
prosecutors say illegal schemes on a scale more commonly associated with big
Eastern cities have devoured tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. Those
problems have given the area of southeast Los Angeles County at least a whiff
of the rogue politics that became the stuff of legend in New York, Philadelphia
and Chicago. South Gate and other towns including Lynwood, Bell Gardens,
Maywood, Huntington Park and Vernon dot an area that once was blanketed with
cauliflower and berry fields, until it was marketed decades ago as a suburban
refuge where homes were affordable, the weather mild and opportunities rich."

Guess who is the city attorney for those cities? Francisco Leal, who is good
friends with California speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez, and also of
Rosario Marin. Marin's protege slate awarded Leal the lucrative city attorney
contract in Huntington Park in closed-door session and without competing bids.
Marin still lives in Huntington Park and was appointed by the Governor to head
California's Consumer Affairs Division, a $4 Billion dollar State agency. Marin is
state Republican party operative, was a Bush appointee to the U.S. Treasurer's
office, and is the other "brownie" doing a heck of a job ("Brownie, you're doing
a heck of a job").
_________________________________________________________

L.A. City Beat, By Alan Mittelstaedt
Thursday, May 8, 2008

The D.A. man needs your help bringing to justice the “gangsters in suits,” as one
prosecutor describes some of the people who run the corrupt cities southeast of
downtown L.A.

Even if Steve Cooley were firing on all cylinders, he couldn’t do it alone. He’s tried.
He’s in over his head. And, for good and for bad, he is coasting to his third four-year
term in the largely ignored June 3 election. Big Bad Steve should pick up the phone
today and ask the FBI to help him put together a sting operation to target elected
officials he’s heard reams of complaints about over the years.

Wire a straw man in one of the cities – Cudahy, Maywood, Bell Gardens – and see
what trouble you can document. Make it part of a joint county-fed task force.

If Big Bad Steve does it right, Angelenos, who get a bad rap for being apathetic
about issues that really matter, could show as great an interest in public corruption
as they do in a crackdown on taco trucks. Instead, the D.A.’s office announced an
indictment last week that most of the 12 million people in the region probably didn’t
even notice.

Bell Gardens Councilman Mario Beltran faces embezzlement charges after a
yearlong investigation, several weeks of grand jury hearings and testimony from
more than 54 witnesses.

If convicted on all 13 counts – seven felony theft counts, a felony perjury count and
five misdemeanor counts for campaign disclosure violations – Beltran could go to
prison, since he was already on probation for filing a false police report. Even if he’s
acquitted, his career as an elected official, even in the sleazy netherworld of
southeast L.A. County, is likely over. Beltran’s attorney, Jorge Gonzalez, said similar
cases often warrant a “slap on the wrist. It’s clear to us that Mario isn’t being treated
fairly.”

The indictment is remarkable mostly for what is not contained in its eight pages,
considering what the public already knows about Beltran and his associates. It also
shows the D.A.’s limitations in chasing down allegations of election fraud, criminal
threats, and intimidation of those who politically oppose a cabal of Latino politicians
who run Bell Gardens and its neighboring cities.

Beltran placed a bull’s-eye on his own chest in June 2006, when he passed out
drunk in a skid row hooker hotel and lied to police about how he lost his wallet, city
badge and cell phone. His conviction for filing a false police report, in March 2007,
was his first, despite a 2004 arrest for attempting to evade police – an
embarrassing incident that ended with him hiding in the bushes in Alhambra.

Even after his wild night on skid row, Beltran wound up on Cooley’s radar only after
a complaint from a fellow councilman that Beltran set up a phone call with a
convicted felon and accused drug trafficker named Shahram Shayesteh that led to
alleged criminal threats. Shayesteh faces trial in the matter; Beltran will not likely be
charged.

The incident raised alarming issues about the stability of Beltran, an enterprising
immigrant from El Salvador who was raised in Mexico and became the protégé of
state Senator Gil Cedillo, later working as a field deputy for state Senator Ron
Calderon.

Cooley’s investigation began with revelations, exposed by CityBeat writer Jeffrey
Anderson last year, that Beltran had met with Shayesteh before awarding him a
lucrative tow truck contract, while also having a business relationship with one of
the tow company’s owners of record, Bahran Madaen. According to Deputy District
Attorney Max Huntsman, additional reports that Beltran had failed to file campaign
disclosure documents in Sacramento led to a subpoena for bank records, which
allegedly show that Beltran stole more than $11,000 in campaign funds to pay his
legal bills in the sad hooker hotel case.

Yet the D.A. was not able to find evidence of provable criminal conduct in Beltran’s
sleazy tow truck company dealings, or in his alleged facilitation of a criminal threat,
despite efforts by LAPD Detective Marcella Winn, who looked deeper into the matter.
Nor can the D.A. do much about more than $100,000 in campaign funds funneled to
some of the state’s most prominent Latino officials – including Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa – by the tow truck company and a sister company in Maywood, which
remains under federal investigation for alleged kickbacks, as Anderson wrote last
fall.

“If I could, would I do it in a minute? Sure,” Huntsman told Anderson last week, of
his desire to probe deeper into the pay-to-play politics in Bell Gardens and its
neighboring cities that bring street elements into city government. “But then we can’t
predict what the future might bring, either.”

Neither Cedillo nor Calderon will talk about Beltran or their longtime support of him.
Last year, in CityBeat, Cedillo all but dared Cooley – and the FBI – to go after
Beltran. Cedillo even came to Bell Gardens pushing an initiative on behalf of
unlicensed immigrant drivers, and stood by Beltran’s side to lend the young
councilman an air of credibility.

In the coming weeks, it will be interesting to see who, besides his lawyers, will
stand beside Beltran and claim he is a good public servant worth saving.

To do that could require one to ignore the following associations, also likely beyond
Cooley’s reach:

Besides Shayesteh, Beltran has ties to other questionable figures. On the night he
passed out in downtown L.A., he was imbibing at the 740 Club, whose owner,
Ralph Verdugo, was run out of Whittier in 2004 for running a nuisance nightclub
called Ibiza, where Beltran was an employee. The 740, which opened on South
Broadway in late 2005, soon became a magnet for gangs and crime, according to
police reports and interviews with law enforcement.

L.A. Councilman José Huizar is no stranger to the place: He called for an abatement
action last year after the club’s questionable reputation surfaced, though he held
fundraisers there.

Lawyer-lobbyist Francisco Leal, who has served as city attorney in a number of
cities, including Huntington Park and Maywood – which always seem to be
attracting attention from federal law enforcers – also sponsored political events at
the 740 with Beltran, who moonlighted at the club while working for a former state
assemblywoman.

Most troubling is that the club’s building permit expediter, Steve Carmona, a former
L.A. planning and public works commissioner, has been indicted for taking a bribe
from accused racketeer and grocery store magnate George Torres, one of L.A.’s
most notorious figures.

Steve Cooley knows all of this. So does the FBI, according to sources close to
ongoing federal investigations in Cudahy, Maywood and Bell Gardens.

The question is, how much of life in that part of the county is a reflection of the
struggles of working class communities with inexperienced leaders? And, how
much is attributable to a cancer growing out of the barrios and into the little city halls
known for corruption and the occasional criminal probe by Steve Cooley?

The
George Cole,
John Noguez,
Ron Calderon
and
Mario Beltran
Connection....
Stay tuned.

George
Cole,
Bell
Council
member
received a
multi-
million
dollar
contract
from John
Noguez