HEWS MEDIA GROUP • Candidate for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize
Los Cerritos FEBRUARY 1, 2013 Serving Artesia, Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens, La Palma, Lakewood, Norwalk, and Pico Rivera 45,000 Homes Every Friday Volume 28, No. 5 LosCerritosNews.net
Noguez Investigation, Arrest Catapults Los Cerritos Community News into 2013 Pulitzer Competition
By Randy Economy
L
os Cerritos Community Newspaper is now “an official entrant” in the prestigious 2013 Pulitzer Prize competition in two categories after its groundbreaking coverage into the current criminal case inside the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office. Los Cerritos Community Newspaper will be considered by Pulitzer jurors in the categories of Public Service and Investigative Series. Publisher Brian Hews said that “this is a historical week for Los Cerritos Community Newspaper and for our entire community.” “To have a small community newspaper considered for the largest award in Journalism in the United States is beyond our wildest dreams,” Hews said. Hews submitted nearly one dozen articles that were authored and co-written by Investigative Reporter Randy Economy regarding “pay to play” activities inside the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office. “For over one year, Los Cerritos Community Newspaper investigat-
PHOTO BY OFFICE OF JACKIE LACEY Los Cerritos Community Newspaper Publisher Brian Hews (right) and Investigative Reporter Randy Economy (left) pose with newly elected Los Angeles County District Attorney, Jackie Lacey. ed the inner workings of the nation’s largest property tax office, and what we found and subsequently uncovered became, in the words of Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley the largest and most significant public corruption case in LA County history,” Hews said in a
Fuentes, Beilke Fired by Central Basin Water District Board By Randy Economy randy@cerritosnews.net
T
he Central Basin Water District Board of Directors has fired Interim Chief Executive Officer Charles P. Fuentes and Ronald Beilke, Assistant to the General Manager last Thursday afternoon during a heated special meeting in Commerce. Fuentes confirmed that both he and Beilke were relieved from their duties after newly elected members Leticia Vasquez, James Roybal and longtime member Bob Apodaca voted to oust both of them. Fuentes told Los Cerritos Community Newspaper that he
Cerritos City Council Candidate Frank Yokoyama’s Suspended by CA State Bar
was advised by General Counsel Arnold Alvarez-Glasman that “three members of the Board of Directors had voted to release me of my duties.” Fuentes is a former City Manager of Pico Rivera and former Chief of Staff to Rep. Grace F. Napolitano and key Senior Administrator of former Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn. Beilke, is a former Mayor and City Councilman in the City of Pico Rivera as well as an executive with the Water Replenishment District of Southern California. In a statement to Los Cerritos Community Newspaper and the La Mirada Lamplighter on Tues-
See CBWD page 10
statement. “It is the story of a lifetime, one of the biggest scandals in modern L.A. history, a Watergate style journalistic adventure that took us (Hews and Economy) to dark bars
See PULITZER page 7
Cerritos City Council candidate Frank Aurelio Yokoyama has been suspended by the California State Bar from practicing law after he was cited for several violations, Los Cerritos Community Newspaper has learned. Yokoyama, 44, was suspended from practicing law on January 7, 2012 by Judge Richard A. Platel of the California State Bar Court. Court documents obtained by LCCN show that Yokoyama had agreed to the suspension back on December 7, 2012. In the Suspension Order, Yokoyama is cited by California State Bar officials for “intentionally, or by gross negligence committed as act involving moral turpitude, dishonesty and corruption in willful violation of Business and Professional Code, section 6016.” The 12 page document was
PHOTO BY RANDY ECONOMY Cerritos City Council candidate Frank Yokoyama has been suspended by the California State Bar in a decision this past month.
sent to LCCN on Tuesday afternoon from a former member of the Cerritos City Council who did not want to be identified. The councilmember told LCCN that “several people were sent the document” over the weekend. In the Order, Yokoyama was required to complete 25 hours of
See YOKOYAMA page 10
Greuel Campaign Manager John Shallman Had Tax Liens Prior to Durkee Arrest By Randy Economy and Brian Hews randy@cerritosnews.net publisher@cerritosnews.net
J
ohn Shallman, Campaign Manager to Los Angeles Mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel was been hit with thirteen different state and federal tax liens in the last six years totaling more than $2.2 million. Shallman and his attorney have publicly indicated that the tax liens are the result of convicted ex-campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee who managed the highpowered political consultant’s personal estate. Durkee is now serving a prison sentence for bilking millions of dollars from some
of the most influential elected officials in California. But an investigation of public records by Los Cerritos Community Newspaper has called into question Shallman’s statement because a majority of the liens were filed prior to Durkee being arrested. Durkee was arrested September 2011 on suspicion of mail fraud. She was found guilty and sentenced to eight years in prison in 2012. According to public records, Shallman had liens filed in Sep. 2006 for $302,115, another in May 2007 for 12,635, one in Dec. 2009 for $202,121, four in 2010 for $214,998 in April, $353,280 in May, $304,675 in May, and
$211,998 in June. A $329,368 lien was filed in August of 2011. The timing of the filed liens contradicts Shallman’s prior statements that they resulted from Durkee’s fraud. “The IRS and California will give you twenty days if the check is not included with the return”, said Dave Ress a CPA from Irvine, “if you do not pay, a letter will go out in the next thirty days demanding payment. If you do not pay within twenty days of that letter, they will file the lien immediately.” “That timeline dictates a lien could be filed approximately seventy days from the filing of the
See SHALLMAN page 10
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8/16/2011 10:16:36 AM