Newsflash from your Hollywood Attorney: San Diego Mayor Bob Filner Pleads Guilty with Felony False Imprisonment, Battery - 3 Counts in Harassment Case

Newsflash from your Hollywood Attorney:

 Former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, driven from office by sexual harassment allegations, was charged Tuesday with felony false imprisonment and two counts of misdemeanor battery involving three women.

The felony count alleges false imprisonment "by violence, fraud, menace and deceit" but does not elaborate on the circumstances.

The victims were identified only as Jane Does.

Filner, 71, resigned in late August, succumbing to intense pressure after at least 17 women brought lurid sexual harassment allegations against the former 10-term congressman. He had been on the job less than nine months into a four-year term and was San Diego's first Democratic mayor in 20 years.

San Diego County sheriff's investigators had been interviewing Filner's accusers and said they would deliver their findings to the attorney general's office for possible prosecution. The state attorney general's office confirmed in August that it launched a criminal investigation.

Filner attorney Jerry Coughlan did not respond to a request for comment after the San Diego Superior Court issued a two-sentence statement describing the charges. A hearing was scheduled for 10 a.m. PDT at the downtown courthouse, only three blocks from the City Hall office that Filner occupied until stepping down Aug. 30.

Filner's former communications director, Irene McCormack Jackson, was the first woman to go public with allegations against Filner and filed a lawsuit against the mayor and the city, claiming her ex-boss asked her to work without panties, demanded kisses, told her he wanted to see her naked and dragged her in a headlock while whispering in her ear.

All nine City Council members as well as fellow Democrats called upon Filner to resign. A recall effort also was launched as more allegations surfaced.

But in a defiant farewell speech, Filner said he was the victim of a lynch mob and believed he would be vindicated if due process was allowed to run its course.

In exchange for his resignation, the city agreed to pay Filner's legal fees in a joint defense of the lawsuit, and cover any settlement costs assessed against the mayor except for punitive damages. The city -- as required by state law -- will also defend Filner against legal actions stemming from other alleged sexual harassment said to have occurred during his nine months in office as mayor.

City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said, however, the city will not represent Filner in any criminal case.

Source.... http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/15/ex-san-diego-mayor-bob-filner-charged-with-felony-false-imprisonment-battery/?cmpid=cmty_twitter_fn

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Ex-mayor San Diego who gambled away $1 billion to pay restitution

Former San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor was booked Friday on a federal charge of taking $2 million from a charitable foundation to feed her gambling addiction.

U.S. Magistrate Judge David Bartick ruled that O'Connor, once she was booked and fingerprinted, could be released without bail. O'Connor is said to be destitute.
Officials said she was never handcuffed.

O'Connor, 66, appeared in federal court Thursday to acknowledge that she took more than $2 million from a foundation established by her late husband, Robert O. Peterson, the founder of the Jack in the Box restaurant chain. She took the money during an eight-year binge of gambling in which she won and then lost more than $1 billion, according to court documents.

Under a plea bargain, O'Connor was allowed to plead not guilty but required to agree to pay restitution to the R.P. Foundation, which became insolvent in 2009 because of her misallocation of funds meant to be used for medical research and programs for the sick and underprivileged.

When she had spent the fortune left to her by her husband--estimated by her lawyer as worth $40 million to $50 million--she sold various property holdings and belongings, including her art collection. She took out second and third mortgages on her home in La Jolla.

When even that was not sufficient to pay her gambling debts, she took $2,088,000 from the foundation, where she was a trustee. Taking money from a nonprofit foundation for personal use is illegal, prosecutors said.

Read More... http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/