Mongols leader makes plea deal in racketeering case

Former Mongols motorcycle gang leader Ruben "Doc" Cavazos faces up to life in prison after pleading guilty to a single racketeering charge among 86 counts accusing gang members of murder, assault, robbery and drug-trafficking, court documents show.

The plea deal between Cavazos and the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles was made in January but sealed until June 29, when the government filed for forfeiture of the gang's registered trademarks under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Practices Act.

The RICO charges have allowed the government to shut down the gang's website and bar commercial use of registered trademarks as financial activity in service to criminal enterprise.

In filing for forfeiture, the U.S. attorney's office said Cavazos' guilty plea allowed the government to force the gang to give up its assets despite an attempt late last year by then-Mongols President Hector Gonzalez to transfer ownership to a new gang.

The proceeds generated by the Mongols' enterprise was valued at $5 million and its property subject to forfeiture includes a West Covina residence, as well as the Mongols' trademarked insignia, according to the 177-page indictment brought in October.

A three-year undercover sting operation infiltrated the gang of about 600 bikers that was active in a dozen states as well as Mexico and Canada.

Among the allegations made against Cavazos and a handful of other leaders in the Mongols' mother chapter were charges of conspiracy with the Mexican Mafia and other Los Angeles-based gangs to control drug-trafficking by means of murder, robbery, extortion, money-laundering and witness intimidation.

Congress enacted RICO "to provide new weapons of unprecedented scope for an assault upon organized crime and its economic roots," the indictment said.

Several others among the 79 gang members arrested last year have also entered guilty pleas, documents filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles reveal. Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, declined to specify how many defendants have entered guilty pleas, saying that some aspects of the case remain under seal.

Mrozek said Cavazos will face up to life in prison when he is sentenced in February, but the details of his plea deal were not disclosed.

Other defendants who have entered guilty pleas to the same charge face maximum sentences of 20 years.

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City attorney wants to know how L.A. got on the hook for Michael Jackson expenses

Newly elected Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich exhibited a bit of the aggressive style he promised during his campaign when he made an unusual appearance today before the City Council.
Trutanich told officials he was investigating how the city ended up on the hook for police costs surrounding the Michael Jackson memorial.
He assured the council that his new management team was going to find out how the city got into the position of providing support for the event and how it could recoup some of the money. His staff is also researching legislation “so we won’t be caught in this lurch again,” he said.
Trutanich announced his team of eight top aides last week – they are a mix of law enforcement veterans, former assistants to Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, friends from Trutanich’s years as a deputy district attorney in the 1980s and members of his campaign organization.
William Carter, chief deputy and chief of staff, worked with Trutanich in the  district attorney’s office. Carter spent two decades prosecuting environmental crimes, first as a state prosecutor and then as a federal prosecutor. In the U.S. attorney’s office for the Central District of California, he also focused on public corruption and government fraud. Most recently, he was a partner with Musick, Peeler & Garrett.

Curt Livesay, Trutanich’s chief legal adviser, worked for 30 years as a prosecutor with the district attorney's office, also serving as chief deputy to Cooley. He is designated as a contract employee.
Jane Usher, who served for three years as president of the Los Angeles Planning Commission before stepping down in December 2008, was an aide to Trutanich during his campaign and will be his be special assistant. Usher previously served as counsel to Mayor Tom Bradley and associate general counsel of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
William Mangan, a former commander in the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department who also directed Cooley’s Bureau of Management and Budget, will serve as Trutanich’s budget analyst. The new city attorney said it was important to “bring in someone who is used to shepherding large bureaucracies through a financial crisis.”
John Franklin, who retired as a commander from the Sheriff’s Department after 37 years and volunteered as a driver for Trutanich during the campaign, was named senior media adviser. He previously supervised the sheriff’sCorrectional Services Division and will do double duty as an investigator.
David Berger, a onetime city attorney candidate and a former deputy district attorney in the major fraud division, was tapped as a special assistant to Trutanich in the areas of ethics and public integrity. Berger, who was the harshest critic of Trutanich’s chief rival Jack Weiss in the primary campaign, became close friends with Trutanich during the race.
Gary Schram will head Trutanich’s new bureau of investigations after a nearly 40-year law enforcement career. He previously helped run a similar bureau within the district attorney’s office.
James Bell, a former investigator whom Trutanich credits with saving his life while they were investigating a murder case in the district attorney’s office, will head special projects in the new bureau of investigation. Trutanich said Bell “will be the lead person on things that I personally put him in charge of that I want to make sure get done correctly.”
Trutanich also named Pedro Echeverria, a veteran assistant city attorney, as chief of the civil division. Echeverria joined the office in 1973 and worked in the general counsel section for 17 years before becoming chief assistant city attorney of the civil branch. Most recently, he served as special counsel.
To head the criminal division, Trutanich chose Earl Thomas, who joined the city attorney’s office in 1980. Most recently Thomas was senior assistant city attorney in the criminal branch.


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