More Hahn supporters in criminal trouble
Earlier today Mark Abrams was indicted by the District Attorney. While many folks on this blog hypothesized about this indictment -- I suppose the DA didn't want to get inolved in mayoral politics, so to keep it clean he waited.
However, in breaking news -- Hal Netkin another Hahn supporter --- was detained today for running over two people while at a Minuteman rally in Garden Grove.
The two young children that Hal Netkin ran over were of Latino descent (who would've thought) Hal claims to be fearing for his life, but I have to say perhaps if weren't at a racist rally there would not be trouble with his life right now.
The troubled coalition that Jim Hahn put together in 2001 are finally losing their minds and going to jail where they belong.
However, in breaking news -- Hal Netkin another Hahn supporter --- was detained today for running over two people while at a Minuteman rally in Garden Grove.
The two young children that Hal Netkin ran over were of Latino descent (who would've thought) Hal claims to be fearing for his life, but I have to say perhaps if weren't at a racist rally there would not be trouble with his life right now.
The troubled coalition that Jim Hahn put together in 2001 are finally losing their minds and going to jail where they belong.
Posted by Anonymous @ 5/25/2005 11:06:00 PM
16 Comments:
It is now official - Hal Netkin is a criminal who deserves to be behind bars. What a freakin' crazy ass!
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-minuteman26may26,0,991190.story?coll=la-home-headlines
3 Hurt, 8 Held at O.C. Protest
Crowd gets rough and police swarm in after a Minuteman event in Garden Grove.
By Monte Morin and David Reyes
Times Staff Writers
May 26, 2005
Two people were injured and at least five others arrested Wednesday after a motorist drove into a crowd of 300 demonstrators protesting a speech by the founder of the Minuteman Project, a conservative citizens group that patrols the U.S.-Mexico border in effort to stop illegal immigration.
A man and a woman were struck and injured by the motorist [Hal Netkin, as seen on TV], who had attended the speech by James W. Gilchrist when protesters began hitting his van with placards and other objects. The driver, who was not identified but spoke to a KCAL 9 television reporter, said he gunned his car engine to get away from the crowd. The man was placed in handcuffs and taken away by police.
Authorities did not describe the extent of the protesters' injuries, but the pair appeared to be slightly injured on video footage.
Demonstrators had gathered at Women's Civic Club of Garden Grove in the 9500 block of Chapman Avenue about 7:30 p.m. to protest Gilchrest's appearance, charging that he and his group were racist. Gilchrest has denied those claims and insists the group is only stopping illegal immigration. His talk was sponsored by Citizens for Action Now, an anti-illegal immigration group.
A witness, Eric Garcia, 22, of Anaheim, said the evening turned ugly about 9 p.m. after the talk was over and people were beginning to leave. He said some protesters were in a driveway holding signs when someone in a car tried to leave. He came close and grazed one of the protesters, Garcia said.
"Then all hell broke loose," he said. "People started throwing things, like rocks and bricks and stuff."
Within minutes, he said, there were about 30 police cars, and dozens of officers on horseback or wearing SWAT gear.
Protester Jose Gonzales, 27, a graduate student at UCLA, said he noticed dozens of additional police officers, some of them on horseback, arriving on the scene shortly after the protesters were struck. He said they began making arrests and dispersing the crowd, which had been marching in front of the building where Gilchrist was speaking.
"When meeting let out at 9:30 p.m. police dragged people, men and women," Gonzales said. "They hit them and dragged them to the ground. There were men and women and children running away. . . . I ran. I lost my shoe."
Garden Grove police did not return calls seeking comment or have a media spokesperson on scene.
By 10 p.m. police ordered the crowd to disperse, saying that were part of an unlawful assembly. If they refused, police said, they would be arrested. Within half an hour, the streets were nearly empty of protesters.
Gilchrest offered no comments on the incident, when interviewed on television. "How do I feel? I feel more alive than ever," he said.
Last month, Gilchrest's group patrolled a portion of the Mexico border in Arizona. He has announced plans to patrol the border of California on Aug. 1.
Times staff writer David Haldane contributed to this report.
What ages were the kids...and what were they doing at this rally? I saw the news and the people looked like adults, maybe I was watching the wrong news story, but the people who said they got hurt looked like in their late 20's-mid 30's.
My cousin is from UCLA and went to protest. I'll email him and find out and post his input here later on what really happened.
Mayor Sam,
Is there any way you would reconsider putting this site's templates the original way it was? I don't know if I am the only one not liking the new setup, but maybe you will reconsider changing it back.
Curious...I want to know where the current staff for Antonio is going. Where is the CD 14 staff going or are they staying? Are they going to city hall or staying put? Who is our contact?
So, here's the article from the Yimes. Note that Cardenas and Pacheco were also the objects of Abrams' bounty...
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-abrams26may26,1,1991383.story?coll=la-headlines-california
Hahn Backer Is Charged
Developer Abrams pleads not guilty in an alleged political money laundering scheme.
By Rich Connell and Robert J. Lopez
Times Staff Writers
May 26, 2005
A Westside real estate developer and major campaign fundraiser for Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn was charged Wednesday with conspiracy and making illegal donations.
Mark Alan Abrams, who helped raise more than $300,000 for Hahn's various political causes, was charged with two felony counts and 10 misdemeanor counts stemming from a joint investigation by the city Ethics Commission and the office of Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley.
Abrams, whose fundraising activities contributed to the cloud of ethics investigations that helped defeat Hahn in last week's election, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in criminal court.
Abrams' attorney, Nathan J. Hochman, told reporters his client accepts full responsibility for his actions and plans to enter a plea agreement later. He said Abrams would work with authorities in any ongoing investigations but declined to elaborate.
"Mr. Abrams intends to and has fully cooperated in the district attorney's investigation," Hochman said.
The charges filed Wednesday against Abrams involve an alleged scheme to violate contribution limits in city campaigns by using straw donors who were reimbursed by Abrams.
Prosecutors say Abrams recruited employees, their relatives and friends to make donations and then paid them back with cash — a banned practice referred to as political money laundering.
Abrams is accused of hiding the true source of more than $10,000 in contributions to Hahn's 2001 mayoral campaign committee, $6,000 in contributions to Councilman Tony Cardenas' 2002 campaign and $5,000 to former Councilman Nick Pacheco's 2003 campaign.
In February, the ethics panel levied a record $270,000 fine against Abrams in connection with the same alleged scheme. Hahn, Cardenas and Pacheco have not been accused of wrongdoing. All have denied knowing of illegal fundraising by Abrams.
The district attorney's office launched its probe last year after The Times reported that three Abrams associates said they had been reimbursed by the developer after, they said, he asked them to make contributions to the mayor and the councilmen.
The newspaper also reported that Abrams, who is a target in a federal probe of an alleged $140-million real estate fraud, angled his way into the upper echelon of Hahn's political organization after meeting the mayoral candidate in a Beverly Hills restaurant in late 2000.
Abrams' business partner in that alleged fraud, Charles Elliott Fitzgerald, also was a Hahn financial backer who spent $70,000 to finance attack mailers against Antonio Villaraigosa in the last days of the 2001 mayoral race. The fliers targeted conservative voters who helped give Hahn his margin of victory.
Fitzgerald fled the country two years ago as the alleged scheme began to collapse, court records show.
As money from Abrams' fundraising efforts flowed to Hahn political committees, the developer received high-level City Hall access on a troubled multimillion-dollar real estate project. Hahn also named Abrams' real estate attorney to the Planning Commission. Hahn has said his office did not provide special treatment to Abrams.
Abrams' main City Hall contact was former Deputy Mayor Troy Edwards, who resigned last year amid investigations of alleged links between contributions and contracts at agencies he oversaw.
As part of that ongoing federal-county "pay to play" probe, prosecutors have subpoenaed e-mails from Hahn and his top aides as well as voluminous records from Los Angeles International Airport, the Harbor Department and the Department of Water and Power.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for the mayor said political money laundering is a crime against elected officials and the public. "We hope the D.A. gets to the bottom of this matter and brings justice to everyone affected," spokesman Yusef K. Robb said.
The felony conspiracy counts filed against Abrams involve only the Cardenas and Pacheco donations, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ricardo Ocampo said. He said a three-year statute of limitations prevented authorities from filing conspiracy charges in connection with the contributions to Hahn. The 10 misdemeanor counts involve the contributions to Hahn.
In a statement Wednesday, Cardenas said that if the charges against Abrams are true, "then I am a victim of fraud."
Pacheco, who has announced his candidacy for the District 14 council seat being vacated by Mayor-elect Villaraigosa, said he did not recall meeting Abrams. "It's unfortunate that people try to get around the rules," Pacheco said. "It's illegal and stupid. I'm glad he's getting prosecuted."
Abrams faces up to eight years, eight months in state prison if convicted on all counts.
*
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Abrams chronology
2000: Abrams relocates from Orange County to the Westside and raises several thousand dollars for mayoral candidate James K. Hahn.
• 2001: As the primary election approaches in April, individuals and companies connected to Abrams contribute at least $17,000 more to Hahn. In addition, Abrams' business partner spends $70,000 on "independent" mass mailings attacking Hahn's opponent, Antonio Villaraigosa, in the final days of the June runoff. After Hahn becomes mayor, his office presses city officials to help Abrams with a troubled real estate project.
• 2002: Abrams' firm contributes $225,000 to L.A. United, Hahn's campaign to fight San Fernando Valley secession. Hahn appoints Abrams' real estate attorney to the city Planning Commission.
• 2003: Abrams is sued by Lehman Bros. Bank, which alleges Abrams and his associates conspired to fraudulently obtain $140 million in home mortgages. Abrams becomes a chief target in a federal criminal investigation of the alleged mortgage scheme.
• 2004: The Los Angeles County district attorney's office begins a review of tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions raised for Hahn and two political allies by Abrams.
Los Angeles Times
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.
Article licensing and reprint options
Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
Home Delivery | Advertise | Archives | Contact | Site Map | Help
partners:
I don't think it's fair to claim Hal Netkin was really a Hahn supporter. Jim Hahn would never even take a phone call from the likes of Netkin. Jim can't help that Netkin has some "thing" for Latinos, (but he's not racist)and Jim was white.
Calling him a "supporter" insinuates that Jim Hahn was glad Hal Netkin was aboard. Yeah right.
And his support for Jim was just opposition to Antonio.
You heard it here, again, "high level indictments... coming down... soon"
They'll be published, here, the same day as the proof of ADV's 80 new neighborhood watches.
Keep coming back Hahn-haters (and whatever you do), please DO hold your breath.
Get of the "hate" Hahn's gone, and "high level" people in the soon-to-be Villaraigosa administration will be in jail long before anyone actually a part of Hahn's.
Count on it - if you little brain-dead haters can count that high.
guilt by contribution; I love it.
AV will fry for his vote favoring Travel Traders future bidding on city contracts, first.
His vote, the next week, was, of course "unrelated" to the $47K he got from workers averaging $30K per year at the hotel gift shop company, right, Ace?
Oh, that's right, Ace is chasing other commissions. Who's gonna spin this for you now, Tonio? How you gonna explain away YOU "high-level indictments?" Word is Republican Cooley is far hotter to nail a sitting mayor with dirty laundry than one headed for private ambulance chasing.
Maybe you won't make it to inauguration before the shit hits your fans.
Isn't it time to "reveal" fake GOP dude? You're really Dennis Zine aren't you?
You people are so full of it... what happened to the "a cndidate can't control what his contributors do" when it was the ADV florida dirty money and Murelo, but apparently Hahn, Pacheco, and Cardena are being held to a higher standard.
OH, and pleas tell me it's the "preponderance" of Hahn contributions that make this "more" dirty, because I'll look foward to coming back and sticking that back in your hypocritical faces when ADVs record millions raised in this race, with tons of it from out-of-state, are finally examined more carefully. That's going to be fun... every couple of months, "another Bile-araigosa supporter faces charges for..."
Hal Nitwit was Anti-Antonio more than pro-Hahn.
Even a broken clock is right once in awhile.
Mayor Sam when are you going to grow up? Back in the good old days you were fair and balanced. Now you sound like a high school girl with a big crush and hard on for Antonio. Let the Hahn thing go. Sounds like you're really obsessed with Hahn. When are you going to admit Antonio was protected by the media, but now he's their main target. Are you EVER going to mature and post those articles?
I'm noticing more and more the censoring you're doing on this blog when negative stories are posted about Antonio. What gives you away is that other posters mention the time of the story and when you look for it, Mayor Sam has deleted. You must still be getting paid by Parke, Ace, Antonio
"Freedom of the press belongs to those who own the press."
Just happen to run accross the vilifications of me on this site.
Let me clear up a few thing:
The two "children" I was supposed to have run over, weren't children at all. They were adults, one of Asian descent and the other a Latino. Both Anarchists faked their injuries. You can see video of the event by going to this site:
http://tinyurl.com/ho8om
Hal Netkin
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home