In February, the Huntington Park City Council with closed doors to discuss a seemingly routine element on its agenda, possible litigation that the city was anticipating.
Everyone in the Council was allowed to attend the meeting, but Esmeralda Castillo, a member of one and then, the member of the castle. Based of the closed discussion, the 22 -year -old was seen in the camera picking up her stading things and making a quiet exit.
When the council again a week later, Castillo no longer appeared as a member. On the agenda, however, there was an article to fill your seat.
As Castillo would learn, the city had silently launched an investigation to determine if he was a resident of the city and concluded that he was not, kicking her out of the counter, all without her knowledge.
Former Councilor for Huntington Park Esmeralda Castillo.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
While the residence requirements for municipal seats are common, the measure of Huntington Park to investigate one of its own members of the Council, then eliminate it unilaterally, is virtually unprecedented, experts say.
“I have never heard of a city that would do it that way. He always complains to the district prosecutor, usually an opponent,” said Steve Cooley, who supervised around the main prosecutor of a dozen residents.
Two weeks ago, in response to a lawsuit filed by Castillo against the city, the council and the city administrator, a judge of the Superior Court of the Los Angeles County issued a temporary resting order that prevented Huntington Park from filling the vacancy.
The Extraction of Castillo from the Office has angered the residents in this Scandal City. In the midst of the current legal fight to recover their seat, several current and previous council members are wrapped in an office of the District Prosecutor of the Probation of Corruption on the alleged misuse of public funds.
On February 26, DA researchers executed search orders as part of “Operation Dirty Pound,“An investigation into the alleged misuse of the funds of the taxpayers assigned for a $ 24 million aquatic center that has no bone construction. Nobody has been charged.
The search warrants were executed in the houses of the then reach of Karina Macias, Councilor Eduardo “Eddie” Martínez and the city administrator Ricardo Reyes. The search orders were also executed in the houses of two former members of the Council, a contractor and a consultant.
In total, agitation is tired of Huntington Park residents.
“I feel sad, disappointed, angry and helpless,” said Maria Hernández, 50, a resident of Huntington Park for a long time that he attended the two -week judicial hearing to support the former councilor.
Castillo declined to be interviewed for this story, but his lawyer, Albert Robles, said his client has been taking care of his sick parents while maintaining a full -time residence in Huntington Park, which according to state and municipal electoral laws. He said the elimination of Castillo was politically motivated.
“Here, the defendants not only acted as a judge, jury and executioner, but to highlight even more the unfair grip of self -directed political power of the accused, [they] He also conducted the investigation, “Castillo alleges in his demand.
The city notified Castillo by letter that he had been investigated and withdrawn from the Council as non -resident, but did not allow him to attend the closed of February 18 when the results of the investigation were discussed, said Robles. He said it was a retaliation that Castillo accused members of bullying and harassment in a formal complaint to the city in January.
But Andrew Sarega, whom the city hired to supervise her investigation into Castillo, played those statements and said that the investigation into Castillo began months before she filed her complaint.
He said a complaint in August to the public integrity division of the District Prosecutor, which analyzes the criminal accusations made against public officials.
According to an email obtained by The Times, the prosecutor’s office declined to take the case, saying that the matter was civil, not criminal. That replaces the case in the lap of the authorities of Huntington Park, who observed the municipal code of the city that says when a mayor or member of the council moves from the city or leaves the office, his seat “will immediately be vacant.”
“He doesn’t say he has to go to court, he does not have to do x, and y z; that is what the laws of the black letter,” Sarega said. “And so, according to the investigation and everything that had discovered the leg that the seat was considered vacant.”
Scott Cummings, a UCLA law professor who teaches ethics, said that although the actions of the Council may not have been the best practice, it seems legally solid.
“It was the action that created the vacancy and the City Council did not have the obligation to vote on anything necessarily because it is an automatic trigger,” he said. “But everything is reduced to whether it is true or not, and it seems that a complete investigation is in order.”
Cooley, who created the Public Integrity Division of the DA that analyzes possible irregularities by public officials, agreed with CUMMINGs and said that local and state prosecutors should occupy these cases to combat the appearance of congenasis.
The city launched its research on Castillo in November, after the city administrator heard multiple complaints claiming that Castillo did not live in the city, Sarega said.
The investigation included surveillance, follow -up of the GPS approved by the Court and search warrants in the Huntton Park apartment and the parents’ house in South Gate. The researchers also interviewed five witnesses, including Castillo, Chordination to Sarega.
He said the researchers tracked Castillo’s vehicle for a month in January and discovered that she had stayed in Huntington Park’s apartment only once. Someone else lived there, but she also had mail there, Sarega said.
The Times visited the apartment of the former councilor for several days in February and nobody responded to the door. The majority of the neighbors in the area said they had not seen Castillo when he was shown photos of her.
Robles, Castillo’s lawyer, played the accusations of the city.
In a statement to support the resting training order against the city, Castillo wrote that he moved to Huntington Park’s apartment near Saturn Avenue and juggle Street after the owner of the house that his family was renting planned to use it for his own family.
“My neighbors on the other side of the street,” he wrote, “whom I have met most of my life and considered a family, offered to allow me to stay in a room at home, until I can his own apartment.”
She wrote that her parents moved to South Gate, where she began to visit frequently because her mother’s health had worsened, requiring more visits to a doctor and a specialist. She said that included stays during the night.
Robles said independently or in which city his client lives, he was never given the due process guaranteed by the California law.
He was concerned that a ruling against his client could establish a precedent for cities around the state that can take similar measures when it comes to cases where an elected official is being accused of not living in his city.
“If you don’t think other cities will, you’re wrong,” he said.
