In addition to taking bribes and falsifying court records, Lopez also forged the signature of a prosecutor with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. In some cases, Lopez fraudulently created records that made it appear drunk driving charges had been dismissed or defendants had served mandatory jail time. Over the course of more than five years, Lopez “resolved” cases by entering information into the court’s computers to make it appear that a defendant had pleaded guilty, paid required fees or had performed community service. “In total, defendant improperly resolved approximately 1,034 cases, including 69 misdemeanor driving under the influence cases, 160 other misdemeanor cases and 805 traffic-related infraction cases,” Lopez admitted in the plea agreement. The co-conspirators were middlemen who recruited individuals with pending cases to pay money that was given to Lopez to resolve their cases without the authorization of the court. In a plea agreement filed last week, Lopez admitted that he was at the center of a scheme in which co-conspirators paid him as much as $8,000 in bribes to “fix” cases. Jose Lopez Jr., 36, of Anaheim, pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiring to violate the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). SANTA ANA, California – A former clerk of the Orange County Superior Court pleaded guilty this afternoon to federal racketeering charges stemming from a scheme in which he accepted more than a quarter-million dollars in bribes to illegally resolve criminal cases and traffic offenses on terms favorable to hundreds of defendants without the knowledge of prosecutors or judges.
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