Someone Get Mimi Walters a Glass of Water Before She Hears about Richard Alarcon

By
Greg Diamond
– October 2, 2012Posted in: "The OC", Fresh Juice

For those who think that Mimi Walters could not possibly get into trouble over a little trifle like running for office based on a sham residence, I give you today’s news about Richard Alarcon:

“Mimi … I am the Ghost of Politics Future!”

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge on Tuesday ordered Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon and his wife, Flora Montes de Oca, to stand trial on perjury and voter fraud charges.

The ruling, by Judge M.L. Villar de Longoria, caps weeks of testimony over the Alarcons’ Panorama City home, and whether the couple actually lived in the residence during Richard Alarcon’s run for City Council’s 7th District seat in 2006 and 2008.

…

The ruling marks a victory for District Attorney Steve Cooley, who has pursued a case against the Alarcons for more than two years. His previous case against the couple was rejected this spring by a L.A Superior Court judge, who cited procedural problems with the prosecution’s handling of the case.

In her ruling Tuesday, Villar de Longoria cited credibility issues with the two witnesses called by the defense during the preliminary hearing. The two witnesses included Alarcon’s cousin and his secretary. She also stated that photos taken of the residence “didn’t show a place that was liveable.”

That October 19 hearing in Young v. Walters just got a little bit more interesting!

Now of course we’re not prejudging Alarcon’s guilt, but — well, at least the Panorama City house he claimed to live in was a house, if you catch my drift.

Because I’m not trying to contact Mimi’s office for comment (I’ve learned not to bother in most cases), I’m hoping that some other intrepid reporter will ask her who she plans to vote for in Irvine’s races and what she thinks of the issues facing Irvine.  (Try to catch her unawares before she has a chance to study up on them!)

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)