The Brief

Former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do will be headed to the low-security Federal Correctional Institution Lompoc in Santa Barbara County in late summer. He was sentenced Monday to five years in prison on a bribery charge for receiving kickbacks from county contracts meant to pay for meals for needy seniors — a scandal uncovered by an LAist investigation and subsequent federal probe.

Is this the end of the story for Do and the corruption scandal surrounding his time at the pinnacle of the county’s power structure? No. Here’s a shortlist of questions that remain unanswered:

1. Will taxpayers get their money back? 

During Monday’s sentencing, Judge James Selna called for a hearing in August to determine the amount of restitution owed from the bribery scheme. The judge said Do and his daughter Rhiannon Do, who received hundreds of thousands in kickbacks from Do’s co-conspirators, will be jointly liable for repaying the restitution.

In Do’s initial plea agreement signed last October, both sides agreed that the restitution was “more than $550,000 and less than approximately $750,000 but recognize and agree that this amount could change based on facts that come to the attention of the parties prior to the sentencing.” The agreement calls for the money to be paid to the U.S. Treasury.

However, attorneys for Orange County, which Selna identified in court as “the only victim” of Do’s crime, say Orange County taxpayers should get over $11 million back from Do. That would cover the following, the county argued in a recent court filing:

• $10.3 million in contracts the county awarded to Viet America Society, known as VAS, whose leaders are among Do’s alleged co-conspirators, mostly for meals to feed seniors. Only 15% of the money for meals was used for its intended purpose, according to Do’s plea agreement. The sum also includes a $1 million county contract with Viet America Society to build a Vietnam War memorial in Fountain Valley, which was never completed.
• $800,000 the county says it has spent so far trying to recover the money, by supporting the federal criminal case and by filing its own civil lawsuit against Andrew Do, Rhiannon Do, VAS founder Peter Anh Pham and other alleged co-conspirators.

The judge set a hearing on the restitution question for Aug. 11.

Separately, the county is seeking to recoup funds through its civil lawsuits: against Do, VAS and its leaders, and against Hand to Hand Relief Organization, a group that subcontracted with VAS.

2.  What’s the status of the county’s civil lawsuits?

The county’s civil lawsuits against Do and his alleged co-conspirators are pending in San Diego Superior Court. Mark Rosen, a lawyer for VAS, Pham, and VAS’s chief financial officer, Dinh Mai, has refuted the allegations in the suit and argued that his clients can’t be forced to testify in the case, under the Fifth Amendment, because they’re facing, or could face, separate, criminal prosecution.

The judge in that civil case agreed to pause much of the fact-finding phase of the lawsuit until June 27, when a hearing is scheduled to decide whether to extend that pause. The judge is also expected to rule at that hearing on Rosen’s effort to get the case dropped against his clients. In a recent filing, Rosen claimed the county didn’t have enough evidence to proceed in its civil suit against VAS and its leaders, and was “trying to turn an accounting dispute into a fraud case.”

Then Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, at right, with Viet America Society founder Peter Pham in a video posted by Do’s official YouTube account.

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Then-Supervisor Andrew Do, screenshot via YouTube

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3. Will Peter Pham be brought to justice?

Pham, the Viet America Society founder, was indicted last Friday on 15 counts, including bribery, concealment of money laundering, and wire fraud. Prosecutors described him as "a friend and associate" of Andrew Do.

But Pham is considered a fugitive. Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney, told LAist that Pham had left the U.S. on a one-way ticket to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, in December 2024. McEvoy said he had no knowledge of Pham leaving the island nation since departing the U.S.

The U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with Taiwan, meaning it has no formal mechanism for requesting the return of a person, like Pham, facing criminal charges in the U.S. That doesn’t necessarily mean Taiwan wouldn’t honor a warrant from Interpol, the international law enforcement cooperation group. McEvoy said a warrant had not yet been issued for Pham “but we expect one will be issued,” he wrote in an email to LAist.

Meanwhile, one of Pham’s alleged co-conspirators, Thanh Huong Nguyen, was arraigned on Monday in Santa Ana and pleaded not guilty.

4. Will Rhiannon Do be allowed to practice law? 

Rhiannon Do, Andrew Do’s youngest daughter, was getting monthly $8,000 checks for her purported work for Viet America Society from September 2021 until January 2023. During that time, she was a full-time law student at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. She graduated in May.

As part of a “package deal” with her father’s plea agreement, Rhiannon Do admitted to filing a falsified mortgage application that disguised her use of taxpayer dollars to purchase a $1 million house in Tustin. She did not face criminal charges. Instead, the agreement called for her to be placed on three years’ probation through a pretrial diversion program, and to continue going to school, including studying for the State Bar exam, or find work.

She still faces allegations of fraud in the county’s civil lawsuit, and she’s jointly liable for paying restitution in her father’s criminal case as a “co-participant,” according to Judge Selna’s sentencing order.

If Rhiannon Do wants to practice law in California, she has to pass what’s known as a “moral character” review with the State Bar. The Bar advises students to submit their application early on in their final year of law school. The Bar has not yet responded to questions from LAist about whether Rhiannon Do has submitted her application.

When deciding whether to grant a law license despite prior misconduct by an applicant, the Bar takes into consideration the severity of the misconduct, whether there was more than one act, and whether there were any rehabilitation efforts, among other factors.

Lawrence Rosenthal, a professor at Chapman University Fowler School of Law and a former federal prosecutor, said the State Bar can interview Rhiannon Do and investigate her role in her father’s misdeeds. But he worries the Bar won’t have access to the government’s evidence against her, which could corroborate the allegations or clear Rhiannon Do of wrongdoing.

“Ms. Do would certainly be entitled to take the position that these are just allegations,” Rosenthal said. “She could say, ‘My father told me this was all on the up and up and I believed him.’”

McEvoy, the U.S. Attorney spokesperson, declined to respond to a question emailed by LAist about whether U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli would make sure the State Bar has access to evidence of Rhiannon Do's alleged criminal conduct.

5. Will anyone else be charged?

There are several people named in the county’s civil lawsuits who have not yet faced criminal charges, including Dinh Mai, the chief financial officer of Viet America Society, and Thu Thao Thi Vu, president of Aloha Financial Investment.

Aloha and its now-shuttered Perfume River restaurant, in Westminster, are described by the county, and by the federal government in its recent indictment of Pham, as pass-through firms that VAS allegedly used to divert taxpayer money for personal gain, including for the down payment on Rhiannon Do’s Tustin home. An LAist investigation also found that Vu was listed as a co-buyer on that home.

The U.S. Attorney’s indictment of Pham also alleges that a former chief of staff of Do “would edit the terms of contracts and beneficiary agreements [with Viet America Society and Hand to Hand Relief Organization] to make them more favorable to defendants Pham and Nguyen.” In exchange, authorities allege, the chief of staff’s fiancée and later wife “was paid tens of thousands of dollars for ‘consulting services’ by Pham and Nguyen.

A previous LAist investigation found that Josie Batres, the wife of Do’s former chief of staff Chris Wangsaporn, was paid by Viet America Society for consulting work in 2020 and 2021. LAist also found that Batres was paid $275,000 in taxpayer funds by a different nonprofit, Be Well OC, for work that was never turned in. After LAist published the story, county health officials demanded the nonprofit refund the money, which they did in November. Wangsaporn resigned from his position at the Board of Supervisors two days after LAist published the investigation.

6. Will there be further investigation into potential corruption? 

Yes. There are at least two probes underway into contracts handled by Do at county agencies over the years:

• CalOptima, Orange County’s low-income health insurance provider, has hired an outside firm to audit transactions approved while Do was on their board. 

• The Orange County Board of Supervisors is also preparing to hire an outside firm to conduct a widespread forensic audit focused on contracts that awarded pandemic relief funds. 

And there could be more. LAist has identified several taxpayer transactions approved under Do’s supervision that have raised concerns among local officials. These include the county’s contract with the firm 360 Clinic to provide COVID-19 testing during the pandemic, and a property deal signed by Do when he was chair of the CalOptima board that would have awarded extraordinary profits to a pair of prominent local businessmen.

Terry Rains, a Westminster resident and local government watchdog who was in court Monday for Do’s sentencing, told LAist she hopes local and federal officials will continue to investigate alleged corruption surrounding the once-powerful politician.

“I’m glad we got the max allowed for this charge and I’m not convinced it’s over yet,” she said.

The $360 million effort to turn Exposition Park’s largest parking lots into green space won’t be completed in time for the 2028 Olympics.

State leaders announced the multi-million dollar investment into the park in 2024, planning to prep the park for an Olympic close-up by replacing the warren of asphalt lots on Expo Park’s southern edge with an underground lot and green park land.

Now park officials say the 6-acre project now won’t break ground until 2028, after the Olympic torch is extinguished.

Expo Park and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will be a centerpiece of L.A.’s Olympic image in the summer of 2028. But for residents of the surrounding South L.A. neighborhoods, the park and its facilities help fill a serious need for recreation and green space.

Andrea Ambriz, general manager of the state-run park, said the park hasn’t had an investment of this kind since the 1984 Olympic Games, but that the inspiration and funding for the park project go beyond the 2028 games.

“Whatever we do now is intended in full to support the community. It’s not just for these games,” Ambriz said.

Ambriz said park officials hit pause on project planning after realizing it would not be completed before the Olympics.

State leaders are still angling to get at least some of the park freshened up in time for the Olympics, with officials announcing in January that Gov. Gavin Newsom planned to earmark $96.5 million in proposed funds for renovations in the park.

The funding, according to the governor’s proposed budget, will be used for “critical deferred maintenance” to meet code compliance and accessibility requirements.

Ambriz said the lion’s share of the money will go to rehabbing roadways, sidewalks and ramps throughout the park to ensure safe pedestrian and vehicle access.

“This is a part of what we know we need,” Ambriz said. “It is a really significant downpayment from the state.”

How will the park affect the neighborhood? 

John Noyola is a 42-year resident of the Exposition Park neighborhood who sits on the North Area Neighborhood Development Council. For him, any major overhaul of the park still feels like an abstract concept.

He’s seen news reports about the proposed changes, but heard little more.

“It hasn’t really affected us or the community,” Noyola said.

The 150-year-old Expo Park has one of the densest collections of cultural institutions in Los Angeles, said Esther Margulies, a professor of landscape architecture just across the street from the park at USC.

Four museums, including the under-construction Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, will soon share the park with the BMO Stadium and the Coliseum.

Margulies said Grand Park, in downtown Los Angeles, has begun to fill a role as a “living room for the city” in recent years, but that Expo Park is falling short of its potential.

“People should see Expo Park as a place to begin their journey of visiting Southern California and Los Angeles,” Margulies said. “This is where you should come and there should be this energy of, like, ‘Wow!’”

Changing Expo Park, Margulies said, starts with building a space that serves its community.

In its current design, the park’s best-kept green spaces sit behind the fences of its museums, Margulies said, and large asphalt expanses act as heat sinks. Major events often come at the community’s expense.

“There’s tailgating, day drinking in the park,” Margulies said. “People don’t come to the park on those days.”

Noyola, the Expo Park resident, said his family and others in the community frequent the park recreation center, pools and fields near the intersection of Vermont Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. He worries that construction could block parking or other access to the park spaces that are available.

He remains wary of the unintended consequences of a park remodel, especially after watching traffic spike in Inglewood when SoFi Stadium and the Intuit Dome were built.

“It would be nice,” Noyola said of the remodel. “Looking at the greater vision of LA 28, it’s needed. But at what cost?”

Southern California is in for a wet week, with the potential for what the weather service is calling "widespread" impacts.

Ahead of the heavy rain, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass has issued an evacuation warning for the Palisades, Sunset and Hurst burn scar areas due to the potential for mud and debris flows.

The warning is in effect from 9 p.m. on Sunday until 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Storm details

When is the rain coming?

Rain is expected to arrive in Ventura and Los Angeles counties Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service.

When is the rain heaviest?

Weather forecast this week for Southern California.

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Courtesy NWS

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Moderate to heavy rain is expected early Monday, with significant snow and damaging winds starting at about 3 a.m. Heaviest impacts, including the possibility of widespread flooding and thunderstorms, are expected to last until around 9 p.m.

Rain continues all week

Light rain is expected to continue Tuesday through Friday.

Upcoming weather alerts for L.A.

• A Flood Watch will go into effect on Monday, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• A Wind Advisory will go into effect Monday, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• A High Surf Advisory will go into effect Monday at 10 a.m. through Thursday, Feb. 19 at 9 a.m. for the Pacific Palisades, Playa del Rey, San Pedro and Port of Los Angeles areas. Angelenos are encouraged to avoid the ocean.
• A Gale Watch, which includes sustained surface winds near coastal areas, will go into effect Monday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for all inner waters near the Pacific Palisades, Playa del Rey, San Pedro and Port of Los Angeles areas. Angelenos are encouraged to avoid boating until the weather is calmer.

Today, millions of Angelenos use the Central Library downtown (which turns 100 this year) and over 70 branch locations to access the Los Angeles Public Library’s collection of over 8 million books.

But this juggernaut wasn’t created overnight. What started with just 750 books in 1872 was transformed in part because of city librarian Everett Perry, a visionary who wanted books to be easy to access. Here’s a look at how his influence can still be felt today.

A library in disarray 

Perry got the job as top librarian in L.A. after working at the New York Public Library, which opened a main building during his tenure. He was accustomed to growth.

But when he arrived in 1911, the Los Angeles Public Library was struggling. With no permanent location, it had moved several times into different rented spaces, the most recent being in the Hamburger's Department Store, where patrons had to ride an elevator to check out books in between women’s clothes and furniture.

Perry aired his grievances in a 1912 library report.

Everett Robbins Perry in 1911.

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Witzel Photo

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Los Angeles Public Library Institutional Collection

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“The modern library aims to be a vital force in a community,” he wrote. “It can not perform this function, if its usefulness is limited by an inaccessible location.”

This is an early look into his ethos as librarian. Perry was part of a progressive crop of librarians, whose ideas were shifting about how books should be stored and used by the public.

His goal was to create a library system focused on great service and that rivaled the very best on the East Coast. With others, he pushed for a central library to be built, funded by a $2 million bond measure. Voters passed that in the 1920s, which led to the creation of the impressive Art Deco building that still stands downtown.

But what was perhaps even more impressive was how he infused the building with novel ideas about how to make reading more accessible.

One key example was his decision to set up subject departments. For decades prior, libraries stored books on fixed shelves (these couldn’t be adjusted), so they were usually sorted by size or acquisition date. Libraries had only recently moved to the not-very-user-friendly Dewey decimal system.

By grouping books under subjects, Perry made it much easier for people to find what they wanted. His idea was so successful that it eventually spread to other libraries across the country.

Another innovation was where you could read the books. Perry put the circulation and card catalog area in the center of the floor, which was surrounded by book stacks and reading rooms along the edges. That meant they were next to the windows and full of natural light, which according to LAPL, wasn’t customary at the time.

The reference room of the Main Library, seen circa 1913, was in an enclosed section on the third floor of the Hamburger Building, a department store.

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Los Angeles Public Library Institutional Collection

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Building a teaching program

Perry earned a reputation as a fair, iron-fist leader who wanted top-notch library practices.

He issued a rulebook for staff that covered everything from the janitor’s responsibility to make brooms last longer to requiring librarians to go with patrons to find books.

But Perry’s legacy also includes the next generation of librarians. In 1914, he revamped an aging LAPL librarian training program into a full-fledged, accredited library school that was known as the best in California.

Artist Dean Cornwell, left, shows his proposal for the Central Library rotunda murals to city librarian Everett Perry sometime in the 1920s.

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Los Angeles Public Library Institutional Collection

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The history department at the Central Library in 1926. This was one of the largest reading rooms of the library.

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Mott Studios

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Los Angeles Public Library Legacy Collection

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He aimed to professionalize librarianship by encouraging men to apply (it had commonly been women), urging all applicants to have at least some college-level education, and creating a formal internship program. The program covered technical librarian skills, as well new coursework that compared how other libraries functioned across the country.

Perry served for over two decades until his death in 1933.

His achievements were numerous. Aside from getting the Central Library built, he grew the staff from 98 to 600, helped the 200,000-book collection balloon to 1.5 million, and added dozens of more branch libraries.

In 2018 he was inducted into the California Library Hall of Fame.

Federal immigration agents have left a U.S. Coast Guard facility that's been a key staging area for them in the Port of L.A., according to U.S. Rep. Nanette Barragan who represents the area.

Since last summer, agents have been using the base on Terminal Island as a launch point for operations.

In a statement to LAist, Barragan, a Democrat, says she confirmed with the Coast Guard last night that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol have vacated the base. She says it's unclear at this time whether the move is permanent or if agents are moving to another location in L.A. County.

Local officials and community groups are celebrating the agents' departure from Terminal Island. Volunteers with the Harbor Area Peace Patrols have been monitoring agent activity for months, tracking vehicles and sharing information with advocacy networks.

Earlier this week, the group said it received reports of the department.