UPDATE—Bakersfield, CA (Wednesday, July 17, 2018 )— “Not Guilty” pleas were entered in court on behalf of Kern County District 5 Supervisor Leticia Perez by her attorney today. The charges, reported below, allege conflict of interest by Perez for voting on a cannabis related measure during a time in which her husband was representing cannabis industry clients, thereby opening her to charges of voting on an item that could benefit her financially. She did not recuse herself in 2017. She did recuse herself this year on similar matters.
Bakersfield, CA (Tuesday, July 17, 2018 at 10 a.m.)— This morning Kern County District Attorney Lisa Green held a press conference to announce that two misdemeanor counts of conflict of interest were filed by her office against District 5 Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez.
The charges appear to be in relation to investments and involvement by the supervisor’s husband, an attorney, in fledgling legal marijuana operations.
The entire statement by Green was about 2.5 minutes long. This is the transcript prepared by The Mountain Enterprise:
Lisa Green: Today the Kern County District Attorney’s Office filed a two count complaint against Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez. The charges are violations of Government code Section 87100 and govt code section 87203. Both charges are misdemeanors.
The first count alleges that on October 24, 2017 as a supervisor on the Board of Supervisors of Kern County, Supervisor Perez is accused of participating in making or attempted to use her official position to influence a government decision in which she knew, or had reason to know, she had a financial interest.
The second count alleges that on or about April 3, 2017, Ms. Perez, in her role as a public official, knowingly failed to file a statement disclosing her investments, interest in real property, and income during the year 2016 as is required by law.
Ms. Perez is scheduled to be arraigned on these charges on Wednesday, July 18. The investigation was conducted over a four (4) month period by the Kern County District Attorney’s Office, Public Integrity Unit. I would like to thank Chief Scott Tunnicliffe and investigators within that unit for their hard work on this case.
Ms. Perez faces a maximum sentence of up to six (6) months [incarceration] on each count. In addition, the first count, Government Code 87100 violation, carries an additional punishment that would not allow her to run for elected office for four (4) years. The decision to impose this provision of the statute lies within the judge’s discretion.
The public integrity unit also investigated allegations made against Supervisor Mike Maggard. The outcome of that investigation revealed no evidence of wrongdoing by Supervisor Maggard. This concludes my prepared remarks for today.
I am going to take questions. Please understand that as this is a pending case, there is very little that I can say. This office will not be making any further public statements.
This is part of the July 13, 2018 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
Have an opinion on this matter? We'd like to hear from you.
