The documents charge Robert Rizzo, ousted Bell city manager, and his former assistant, Angela Spaccia, with conflict of interest for creating what authorities said were illegal retirement packages for themselves. Both are also charged with falsifying documents to hide the true salary of Bell's former police chief.
Rizzo and Spaccia pleaded not guilty Wednesday and were ordered to return to court May 3 for a preliminary hearing.
Rizzo already faces more than 50 counts of misappropriating public funds, conflict of interest, falsifying public records and other charges brought by the district attorney's office. Prosecutors said he masterminded a scam in which he paid himself and other top Bell officials massive salaries.
In all, prosecutors said, Bell was looted of more than $6 million. The city of 40,000 people, where one in six people live in poverty, is as much as $4.5 million debt.
Rizzo had an annual salary and compensation package of $1.5 million, Spaccia was paid an annual salary of more than $375,000 and six former Bell City Council members each received about $100,000 a year for part-time service.
Prosecutors have said Rizzo and Spaccia illegally granted
themselves several raises over the years that the Bell City Council never approved. According to the grand jury indictments, they then used those inflated salaries to boost their retirement packages.The indictments also charge both with falsifying public records to show that former Bell Police Chief Randy Adams was paid $200,000 a year, when he was actually receiving $457,000.
Adams, who along with Spaccia and Rizzo was fired after the public learned of their salaries, has not been charged with a crime.
Rizzo is also charged in the grand jury indictment with one count of conflict of interest for providing legal work for the city of Bell to a law firm that prosecutors said was representing him in a driving under the influence case at the same time.
Rizzo's attorney, James Spertus, said he doesn't believe the latest charges significantly affect the overall case and that he looks forward to disproving them in court.
"A grand jury is an opportunity for a prosecutor to present untested evidence to people in secret without anybody able to testify to their presentation," Spertus said.
Spaccia's attorney, Russell Petti, said his client wasn't involved with documents involving Adams' salary because at the time she was temporarily working for the neighboring city of Maywood.
Petti said the changes made in Spaccia's retirement package were part of an effort to bring her pension, and those of many other Bell employees, in line with what police officers and firefighters were getting.
"You'll find when we get to the bottom of this case that although she was a participant in the city of Bell, she did nothing that was overtly criminal and she never had any criminal intent," he said.
Spaccia also faces a handful of fraud charges previously brought by the district attorney. The six former council members face nearly two dozen charges.
Kim Smith Jill Wagner Reese Witherspoon Bar Refaeli Laetitia Casta
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