FBI is Investigating LA City Attorney
Updated: Criticized for allegedly using his office for personal benefit, the Los Angeles city attorney is now reportedly the target of a federal criminal investigation.
Rockard “Rocky” Delgadillo, 48, is being investigated by FBI agents working out of San Francisco, “in what appears to be a wide-ranging probe,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle, citing unnamed sources.
However, a spokesman for the city attorney, Nick Velasquez, says he is unaware of an FBI investigation and that “any allegation of any wrongdoing is nothing more than trash.” Velasquez blamed political opponents of the city attorney, who is in his second term, for putting the FBI investigation in the news.
A subsequent Los Angeles Times article says Delgadillo’s wife and her business activities are a focus of the investigation.
Delgadillo has faced ongoing criticism since first being elected to the post in 2001, and he paid $11,450 in fines in 2004 after he was accused by the Los Angeles ethics commission of campaign finance violations in his initial campaign for city attorney, the Chronicle article reports. He admittedly had city employees perform personal errands and babysit for him, but says they did so as volunteers and hence this work involved no violation of municipal laws.
Recent criticism has focused on his wife’s use of his city-owned vehicle, and his lack of cooperation with a proposed city audit of some $128 million in workers’ compensation payouts supervised by his office.
A graduate of Columbia Law School, Delgadillo was viewed as a rising star politically prior to a slew of negative publicity.
Related coverage:
Los Angeles Times: “Rocky Delgadillo, Laura Chick pause their spat after Los Angeles City Hall intervenes”
Updated at 5:50 p.m., central time, on Aug. 20, 2008, to include subsequent Los Angeles Times coverage.
