The Guy Who Wants to Be the Next Mayor of LA Has Just Been Sued

An over-billed utility customer at the center of the DWP debacle argues his civil rights were violated because City Attorney Mike Feuer's office colluded with his counsel and then covered it up.

A lawsuit has been filed this morning against Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, the city, and other figures involved in the wide-ranging Department of Water and Power debacle.

The federal civil rights lawsuit was filed in the Central District of California, and is brought by Antwon Jones, a DWP customer who sued the utility for being over charged on his electricity bill more than six years ago.

The way that lawsuit was handled is the subject of this new suit, which claims Feuer’s office violated Jones’ civil rights by colluding with his own attorneys to negotiate a settlement favorable to the city. They ghost wrote his lawsuit. Then the city covered up this huge conflict of interest, spending millions in taxpayer money and thus depriving Jones the opportunity to get help from the court system, according to the lawsuit.

In other words, the suit argues the city and a few private attorneys unjustly enriched themselves at Jones’ expense. And that Feuer, as the city attorney in charge of defending the city in court, who has denied knowing about this, actually did know about it, according to the lawsuit. Because of the alleged coverup, Jones didn’t know until the statute of limitations expired for bringing the suit that he had been wronged, according to the suit. Now Jones wants to recoup those losses, and also have the city pay back taxpayers.

In 2014 Jones received a bill from DWP for $1,374, much more than he usually paid, as a result of mass billing errors. He got in touch with Paul O. Paradis, an obscure New York personal injury attorney, to file a lawsuit. What Jones said he didn’t know at the time was that Paradis was also working for the city. Feuer was the one who hired him. Part of an ongoing FBI investigation into Feuer’s office and LADWP is whether customers were defrauded as a result of the litigation.

“As is now well established, the settlement was the product of collusion and a fraud on the court involving, among others, Paradis, [Jack] Landskroner, [Michael] Libman and
a number of high-level city officials, including Los Angeles City Attorney Michael Feuer,” says the lawsuit.

Feur said he hasn’t read the whole complaint, adding that is appears to “rehash" old allegations.”

"I can say unequivocally that I have always acted with complete integrity, and any allegation to the contrary is absolutely false. Period,” said Feuer.

Feuer has denied knowledge of the scheme, saying it was the rogue work of Paradis and Paul R. Kiesel, his co-counsel. But Paradis and Kiesel said everything they were doing was at the direction of the city attorney’s office.

Feuer and those named in the suit are being sued under a provision of the Civil Rights Act, Section 1983, a statute usually used to seek remedy against government misconduct, such as police shootings or prison abuses. This is a creative way of bringing the action, so we’ll see how a judge responds to it.

And how much did the city spend in taxpayer money to fight this in court? Right now that number is around $3 million. The city is on the hook for $2.5 million in court-ordered sanctions over its handling of the litigation, in addition to $147,000 it has to pay in attorney’s fees for unsuccessfully defending itself from the sanctions. Another $176,000 was spent on an internal investigation by Feuer’s office, which exonerated him without interviewing a single witness. According to Paradis, he said he offered himself up to the attorney doing the report, Ellen Pansky, but never heard from her.

“Mr. Jones was the victim of fraud, corruption and a massive government cover-up, which violated his constitutional rights and cost taxpayers like himself millions of dollars,” said Jones’ attorney Jeffrey B. Isaacs of Isaacs Friedberg, who worked as a federal prosecutor and in the city attorney’s office under a different administration. He called the underlying Jones settlement “one of the most notorious class actions in Los Angeles history.”

Those being sued by Jones also include Feuer’s chief deputy at the time, James P. Clark, who supervised the high-profile billing lawsuit, and who testified that he knew about the dual representation. He retired earlier this year. The other person being sued is Thomas H. Peters, who also supervised the case. Before coming to work for Feuer, Peters worked with Paul Kiesel, that other lawyer Feuer hired to resolve the billing issue. Both Kiesel and Paradis resigned after I reported that they represented both Jones and the city.

The lawsuit cites a slew of other participants, such as Paradis’ company Aventador Utility Solutions, now known as Ardent Cyber Solutions, which was recipient to millions in no-bid contracts related to the case. Also mentioned are Jones former attorneys class Michael Libman and Jack Landskroner, who made $12 million for work allegedly done by city lawyers. And David Wright, the then-head of the DWP, who right after refusing to ask questions about the billing issue during his deposition, proceeded to quit his job.

Wow, woa.

Feuer announced his memory-holed mayoral run back in March and appears at the moment to be only running against himself. The election won’t happen for another two years.

Definitely more to come, and soon.