StormX
Banned
[h=2]A jury finds that the Democrat lied about his address on voter registration and candidacy papers in 2007 and 2008 and voted fraudulently in five elections. He could get more than eight years in prison.[/h]
A Los Angeles jury Tuesday found state Sen. Roderick D. Wright, a fixture in area Democratic politics, guilty on eight felony counts of perjury and voter fraud.
Prosecutors said Wright, the first member of the Legislature to be convicted of a felony since the Shrimpscam sting of the 1990s, could face more than eight years behind bars and be banned for life from holding other elective office. It is unclear whether he must forfeit his Senate seat.
The lawmaker, who sat with his head bowed as a criminal courts clerk read the verdicts, had no comment. But his attorney said they would appeal. Judge Kathleen Kennedy set sentencing for March 12. Wright, who was indicted by a county grand jury in September 2010, remains free on $45,000 bail.
Under the state Constitution, a lawmaker can be expelled from the Legislature on a two-thirds vote of his or her house. In some cases, legislators have resigned voluntarily. California law requires that candidates for the state Legislature live in the district they seek to represent when they take out papers to run.
Wright's racially diverse jury of nine women and three men deliberated less than two full days before finding that he had lied about his address on voter registration and candidacy documents in 2007 and 2008, as he prepared to seek the Senate seat he holds. He also voted fraudulently in five elections in 2008 and 2009, the jurors found.
Wright, 61, said he thought he was following the law when he arranged to rent a room in a home he owns that is occupied by his common-law stepmother to establish a legal residence in Inglewood. The city is in the district he wanted to represent.
Deputy Dist. Attys. Bjorn Dodd and Michele Gilmer, of the Public Integrity Division, said his true residence was a house in the upscale Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, outside the district. They presented evidence showing full closets, three luxury cars, prescription medicines, collectibles and artwork at the Baldwin Hills house but few of Wright's personal effects at the Inglewood complex he bought in 1977.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-rod-wright-verdict-20140129,0,650766.story#ixzz2rp6R2Sxn
Paging Desh......Democrat convicted of lying, cheating and voter fraud......
A Los Angeles jury Tuesday found state Sen. Roderick D. Wright, a fixture in area Democratic politics, guilty on eight felony counts of perjury and voter fraud.
Prosecutors said Wright, the first member of the Legislature to be convicted of a felony since the Shrimpscam sting of the 1990s, could face more than eight years behind bars and be banned for life from holding other elective office. It is unclear whether he must forfeit his Senate seat.
The lawmaker, who sat with his head bowed as a criminal courts clerk read the verdicts, had no comment. But his attorney said they would appeal. Judge Kathleen Kennedy set sentencing for March 12. Wright, who was indicted by a county grand jury in September 2010, remains free on $45,000 bail.
Under the state Constitution, a lawmaker can be expelled from the Legislature on a two-thirds vote of his or her house. In some cases, legislators have resigned voluntarily. California law requires that candidates for the state Legislature live in the district they seek to represent when they take out papers to run.
Wright's racially diverse jury of nine women and three men deliberated less than two full days before finding that he had lied about his address on voter registration and candidacy documents in 2007 and 2008, as he prepared to seek the Senate seat he holds. He also voted fraudulently in five elections in 2008 and 2009, the jurors found.
Wright, 61, said he thought he was following the law when he arranged to rent a room in a home he owns that is occupied by his common-law stepmother to establish a legal residence in Inglewood. The city is in the district he wanted to represent.
Deputy Dist. Attys. Bjorn Dodd and Michele Gilmer, of the Public Integrity Division, said his true residence was a house in the upscale Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, outside the district. They presented evidence showing full closets, three luxury cars, prescription medicines, collectibles and artwork at the Baldwin Hills house but few of Wright's personal effects at the Inglewood complex he bought in 1977.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-rod-wright-verdict-20140129,0,650766.story#ixzz2rp6R2Sxn
Paging Desh......Democrat convicted of lying, cheating and voter fraud......
