complaint: mike feuer okayed payoff to keep news of DWP sham lawsuit from leaking
this is according to a state bar complaint from paul paradis, one of the attorneys feuer's office hired in DWP.
Some pretty big developments today regarding Mike Feuer’s role in the DWP saga. A new complaint filed with the State Bar of California says Feuer directed a payoff to keep news about the DWP sham lawsuit from leaking out. If true, this is a federal crime, and it shows that Feuer lied to us about his knowledge of DWP for three years.
Feuer previously said he did not know about the extortion payment, and testified under oath that the sham lawsuit was hidden from him.
The complaint has been filed by Paul Paradis, Feuer’s former outside counsel who himself is facing a felony conviction over the DWP saga.
The complaint fills in some missing details about the latest criminal plea agreement in the DWP saga, in which Feuer’s former employee, Thomas Peters, admitted he directed a city lawyer to pay the extortion fee. The government in its plea agreement with Peters said an unnamed female came forward over four years ago with documents that would show the DWP settlement with ratepayers was collusive and a sham. She approached the city with the documents and requested close to a million dollars, according to government. She has not been charged. The government only described those who directed the payoff as “senior members of the city attorney’s office.” Now according to Paradis, those figures were Feuer and his number two, Jim Clark. They have not been charged with any crimes.
Right after the news of this came out, Feuer issued a statement saying he knew nothing about the extortion. His statement read, in part, “at no time until today was I aware of Mr. Peters’ illegal actions. With his admissions of wrongdoing we finally know the truth of what happened.”
Paradis is saying that statement is a lie. And he says this is a lie because:
In November 2017 it was Paradis who informed Peters at the city attorney’s office that a person came forward and threatened to leak documents that showed the Jones billing lawsuit was collusive. The person was a former employee of Kiesel Law, Paradis’ co-counsel for the city in the DWP litigation.
That person had already contacted Feuer’s number two, Jim Clark, who wanted the problem taken care of and kept under wraps, according to Paradis.
Peters reportedly said Feuer knew about the situation and was “extremely unhappy,” and unless city co-counsel Paul Kiesel and Paradis “cleaned up” the situation, they would be fired. Paradis said Feuer and his deputies “could not tolerate the fact of the collusive settlement in the Jones v. City of Los Angeles class action becoming public.”
On Dec. 1, 2017, Peters ordered Kiesel to pay the extortion demand. Paradis said Peters’ own “sworn admission” said Peters met with Feuer on Dec. 1.
Later, Paradis said he got a text from Peters, saying “Mike is not firing anyone at this point. But he is far from happy about the prospect of a sideshow.”
Feuer also has maintained that he did not know that Paradis, his own counsel, actually drafted the ratepayer lawsuit filed against the city. Feuer claims he was not made aware of that until April 2019, almost three years ago. This contradicts the whole Feuer narrative.
Other new info: Paradis said Feuer discussed with Peters in early 2019 about imminent bad news coming out in DWP.
Obviously Paradis is no angel in this, but he also can’t lie because he is bound by a plea agreement. I asked Feuer’s office if he was present at that December 1, 2017 meeting, and got no response.
The complaint argues Feuer committed perjury and helped a lawyer commit a criminal act, among other state bar violation violations.
Definitely more to come regarding all this.
Meanwhile, in another timeline, Feuer is still running for mayor.
