More than 13 years after LA bribery arrest, John Noguez may finally face trial

LOS ANGELES (CN) — The year was 2012. President Barack Obama was wrapping up his first term, children’s movie “Frozen” was in theaters and LeBron James had just won his first NBA title with the Miami Heat.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, L.A. County Assessor John Noguez was arrested and charged with 24 felony counts of bribery, conspiracy and misappropriation by a public officer. The story received breathless coverage in the local press, shining a light on seldom-scrutinized county government.

Since then, Los Angeles has witnessed a seemingly endless parade of political scandals, each of them adding to an increasingly grim picture of corruption in local politics.

Bribery investigations led to years of indictments and charges against prominent city officials. Several went to prison, including City Councilmembers Mitch Englander, who got 14 months; Mark Ridley-Thomas, who got three and a half years; and José Huizar, who got 13 years. All three were longtime fixtures of L.A. government.

In 2023 — the same year Huizar was sentenced — another long-serving city councilmember, Curren Price, was indicted for embezzlement and perjury. Prosecutors added more charges last year. Most recently, in December, Councilmember John Lee got hit with thousands in fines after he was found to have violated city ethics laws.

The situation reached a boiling point in 2022, when leaked audio revealed three other city councilmembers discussing a plan to draw district lines to favor Latino politicians. The group used racist and profane language, insulting Black and gay politicians alike.

No one broke the law, except for maybe the person who recorded the conversation (California is an “all-party consent” state, meaning everyone in a conversation must consent to being recorded). Nonetheless, furious public backlash led to resignations and literally shut down city council proceedings. City Hall increasingly came to be seen as a den of corruption, where everything was a backroom deal and nothing was on the level.

All of that consigned the Noguez scandal as a distant memory, a footnote to a footnote.

So forgotten was Noguez that many forgot that he was never tried.

Until now, that is. Or rather, until very soon. Probably. After years of delays, jury selection is set to begin Monday.

"Talk about the wheels of justice spinning slow," said former District Attorney Steve Cooley, who first filed the case more than 13 years ago. "In terms of a pending case, I've never heard of anything like this. I think this is like a world record, at least for California."

The prosecution of Noguez and his two codefendants has been beset by countless issues: continuances, delays, procedural hiccups, new attorneys, a rejected plea deal and subsequent appeal.

Jennifer Snyder, a former prosecutor who helped bring the case against Noguez, said fraud cases are complicated and thus can take a long time to get to trial. Discovery is a slog, with defendants often doing whatever they can to stall the process.

That said, the Noguez case has moved especially slow. Four years after his arrest, Noguez and his co-defendants hadn't even had a preliminary hearing, which had been postponed more than a dozen times. The delay was so long that one former assessor speculated to the Los Angeles Times: "I think the decision has been made that they’re just going to let him go."

Snyder says that within the justice system, fraud — a white-collar crime — is often not treated as a high priority. 

“Fraud is perceived throughout the criminal justice system as hard work with little payoff, unless the amounts involved are enormous or the circumstances are outrageous or otherwise scintillating," she said. "Our community is not oriented or invested in abating fraud. We absorb its costs because we expect to be victimized, whether by individuals, by businesses or by public employees."

With the trial finally set to begin in the coming months, it remains to be seen how the decade-plus delay will affect the outcome.

Much has happened in the 13 years. At least two of the potential witnesses in the case have died. As for the rest, their memories haven't gotten any more vivid.

"At the end of the day, the longer a case goes on, it’s better for the defendant," said Dmitry Gorin, a criminal defense attorney who is not connected to the case. "Witness' memories fade, people leave town. Time always helps the defendants."

Snyder agrees the delay could have implications but stressed that much of the evidence remained solid.

"It certainly affects your ability to recall, and certainly removes the urgency in some people’s mind," she said. On the other hand, “a lot of the case is documentary. And documents don’t change."

John Noguez joined the county assessor's office in 1985 as a student worker, slowly climbing the ranks of the obscure, 1,500-person office. He’s referred to in charging documents by his birth name, Juan Renaldo Rodriguez.

Noguez soon entered politics, winning several positions in the small city of Huntington Park in southeast LA County, including mayor, city councilman and city clerk. In 2010, he was elected county assessor after raising more than a million dollars — a big haul for such a small office. His opponent raised just $40,000.

An assessor's job is to determine the value of a piece of real estate so it can be properly taxed. 

These assessments are open to interpretation. Property owners with means can hire “tax agents,” consultants who argue for lower valuations. There’s also an appeals process.

Having worked in the office for 25 years, Noguez became close with several tax agents. 

One of them, Ramin Salari, was Noguez’s best friend, local paper LA Weekly reported in 2012. He’d even helped Noguez get his start in politics, giving $15,000 to his city council campaign.

Prosecutors say Salari also gave Noguez $185,000 in exchange for lower valuations at properties Salari represented, including a once-beloved and now-closed restaurant: the Old Spaghetti Factory in Hollywood. 

In October 2012, Noguez was led out of his Huntington Park home in handcuffs. Several others were also arrested, including Salari, with charges including conspiracy, grand theft, bribery, and embezzlement. 

Noguez, Salari and the third defendant, Mark McNeil, who is representing himself, all declined to comment on the charges against them. 

Noguez spent nearly five months in jail before being released on $1 million bail. He continued to draw a $192,000 salary for two years, and it would be years more before his preliminary hearing.

Prosecutors blamed the glacial pace on massive amounts of evidence, which included more than 45,000 pages of documents. They also blamed Noguez and Salari for repeatedly changing lawyers.

But there were clerical errors on the prosecutorial side, too. When a preliminary hearing finally happened in 2018, there was a snag: The district attorney’s office failed to file charging documents within 15 days as required by law. A lower court judge didn’t mind, but an appeals court did, throwing out the case in 2020. Prosecutors promptly refiled.

Then came the strangest twist. In January 2023, after more than a decade of fighting the case, Salari cut a deal with prosecutors, agreeing to a $9 million fine and two years probation in exchange for no prison time.

Superior Court Judge Stephen Marcus was skeptical. According to court documents, prosecutors insisted Salari's cooperation could "make the case" against Noguez and McNeil. The judge relented on the condition that Salari immediately divulged what he knew.

Salari spent the next two hours giving prosecutors "a detailed account of his role in the charged crimes, incriminating himself and others in the process," according to court records. 

Then Marcus had a change of heart.

"I believe it’s far too lenient,” the judge said of the plea deal. "Someone has to go to jail and that means Mr. Salari."

The unusual hearing led to even more delays. Salari appealed, arguing he’d incriminated himself to prosecutors and could no longer be given a fair trial, but a higher court declined to intervene.

Late last year, Salari filed a motion to delay the trial, saying that he'd developed "an irredeemable breakdown of communications with my counsel" and had to hire another attorney, who needed to get up to speed. Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler denied the motion. 

Not to be dissuaded, Salari sued his lawyer’s firm, Larson LLP, for breach of contract, claiming that he’d been promised that Stephen Larson himself would represent Salari at trial, only to have his case taken over by a mere partner. The lawsuit, the firm argued, created a serious ethical conflict, and asked to be removed from the case. 

Again, the stern Fidler was not having any of it.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s bad faith on the part of Mr. Salari,” Fidler told the court. “He doesn’t want to go to trial.”

He denied the motion. An appeals court this week declined to take up the issue. That brings things up to the present. At press time, jury selection is slated to finally begin on Monday, Jan. 26. Opening arguments are expected to start the following week, after lawyers wade through more than 150 prospective jurors. 

The trial itself is expected to last around six months, a nearly interminable time commensurate with how the case has proceeded up until now. 

“I don't think it's to the prosecution's benefit to have a long, boring trial,” said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University. “You do worry that jurors will start to think, ‘Well, this, you know, this happens all the time. How can it be a crime? Maybe it's just the nature of politics, right?’”

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