Former Los Angeles City Councilmember José Huizar was sentenced to 13 years in prison Friday for racketeering and tax evasion, marking the final step in the stunning downfall of a once-promising Mexican-born politician some had considered could one day be mayor.
As part of a plea deal struck last year in federal court, Huizar, 55, had agreed not to ask for fewer than nine years in prison. He is the third former member of the city council convicted in separate corruption cases in recent years.
Two others stand accused of corruption.
In sentencing Huizar, Judge John Walter said the former council member did "extraordinary harm to the political system in the city of Los Angeles" and "demeaned the integrity and work ethic" of other elected officials. The judge acknowledged Huizar's rise "from humble beginnings" and said Huizar's success story comes to an "incredible sad ending."
"Its difficult to understand why he threw it all away," the judge said.
Walter added that Huizar's attempt to downplay his actions by saying the projects he supported in exchange for bribes were good for the city shows "he has little remorse."
In addition to the prison term, the judge ordered Huizar to pay $444,000 restitution to the city and $39,000 to the IRS. He also ordered Huizar to enroll in alcohol and gambling addiction programs.
The judge said Huizar would be taken into custody April 30.
“He used his power to use City Hall like his personal ATM and he treated the people who relied on City Hall like pawns in a chess game,” said U.S. Attorney Martín Estrada, whose office prosecuted the case.
“This is the most substantial sentence to date in our ongoing efforts to root out public corruption," Estrada said after the sentencing hearing. "We now have a landmark sentence which we hope will send a clear message that public corruption will not be tolerated in our city.”
He used his power to use City Hall like his personal ATM and he treated the people who relied on City Hall like pawns in a chess game.
— U.S. Attorney Martín Estrada
A wide-ranging corruption scandal
Prosecutors said Huizar was at the center of a wide-ranging corruption scandal in which he received cash and trips to Las Vegas in exchange for his influence at City Hall.
The former council member solicited bribes from developers then helped them move their projects along in his district, according to his indictment. This included city council votes, either expediting or delaying the approval process, exerting pressure on other city officials, and negotiating with and pressuring labor unions, prosecutors said.
He was well situated to exercise influence as head of the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee, which reviews large-scale development proposals.
Prosecutors said he secured more than $1.5 million in illegal payments from developers eager to build in Huizar’s 14th District, which included downtown L.A. during a period of major development projects.
In one case, development company Shen Zhen New World 1 paid Huizar more than $1 million in bribes for his help with a proposed 77-story skyscraper on Figueroa Street.
Lavish gifts from a billionaire developer
In court filings, prosecutors detailed how the company’s billionaire owner Wei Huang lavished Huizar with all-expense paid trips to Las Vegas that included rides on private jets, hundreds of thousands of dollars in casino chips and the service of sex workers.
Huang also provided $600,000 to help Huizar settle a sexual harassment lawsuit during his 2013 re-election campaign.
In May, the same judge fined the company $4 million, the maximum allowed under law, and decried the “crushing weight of corruption” at L.A. City Hall.
Prosecutors were unable to charge Huang, a Chinese citizen, who fled to China and has not returned to his San Marino home, according to the L.A. Times.
The others accused of being part of the criminal conspiracy laid out in the plea agreement included lobbyists, consultants, and other city officials and staff. At least six have been convicted.
Huizar was born in Zacatecas, Mexico and immigrated to Boyle Heights with his parents at the age of 3. He attended the University of California, Berkeley and went on to earn a master’s degree in public affairs and urban planning from Princeton University. He later graduated from UCLA Law School.
He was elected to the L.A Unified School District Board of Education in 2001 and to the L.A. City Council in 2005.
On June 23, 2020, Huizar was arrested by federal agents and he was suspended from the City Council.
Huizar accepts responsibility
Huizar, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, tie and glasses, addressed the court briefly Friday morning, apologizing to “my family and my constituents.
"I accept responsibility for my actions,” he said.
His defense attorney, Charles Schneider, had urged the judge to impose a nine-year sentence. He said Huizar had been a good council member.
"Mr. Huizar was actually effective in his job," Schneider said. "He was a hard worker. He had a record of achievement.He’s overcome long odds. Now he’s confessed.”
Schneider urged the judge to consider Huizar’s family, including his four children, and said Huizar’s life had been “totally destroyed and his family torn apart.”
Schneider said the scandal “will now become the first line in his biography.”
The judge acknowledged Huizar’s positive work for the Los Angeles. He also noted Huizar's background — that he had worked hard as a boy, picking strawberries with his parents, shining shoes and working at a video store to pay for his catholic high school education in Boyle Heights.
“It's undisputed that the defendant worked to make downtown a world class city,” the judge said. But he added that Huizar was “entitled to no special consideration for good work" because that's what was expected of him in his role on the council.
Huizar was the “architect of a criminal enterprise with an unusually extensive pattern of misconduct,” Walter said.
3rd criminal conviction of an ex-councilmember
The U.S. attorney would not say whether the federal government's investigation into L.A. City Hall is over.
"I'm not going to get into other investigations," Estrada said at a news conference,
One more trial remains in the Huizar investigation. Prosecutors have accused former L.A. Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan of accepting tens of thousand of dollars in bribes. That case is set to go to trial this spring.
Former Councilmember Mitch Englander served 14 months in federal prison after being convicted of obstruction of justice in 2020.
Former Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was sentenced in August to 42 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $30,000 fine for his conviction on corruption charges. He has appealed his conviction.
City Councilmember Curren Price pleaded not guilty last month in state court to corruption charges after a judge rejected arguments by his defense attorneys that the case should be dismissed. Price represents parts of South L.A.
The county District Attorney’s Office has filed five counts of grand theft by embezzlement, three felony counts of perjury and two counts of conflict of interest — all felonies — against Price. If convicted, he faces a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Last year, the L.A. City Ethics Commission accused Councilmember John Lee of taking illegal gifts. Lee, who represents the western San Fernando Valley, has said he did nothing wrong.
At the center of the allegations is a 2017 Las Vegas trip taken by Lee and Englander. The commission alleges Lee accepted free food, hotel rooms and poker chips from a businessperson and a developer with business before the city.
