Albert Abrams, Mayor Villaraigosa's Neighborhood Councils Honcho, Blames 'Split Personality,' Pain, For Child Porn Problems
Updated at the bottom with with reaction from one Neighborhood Council leader. First posted at 11:33 p.m. Wednesday.
Albert Abrams.
Albert Abrams, top dog at the L.A. Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, appeared to admit to a local TV news station that he viewed child porn because "it is what my split personality decided to do."
He resigned this week after the FBI searched his home for child porn, the Los Angeles Times reports. If authorities found anything illicit, they're not saying, but the paper says federal agents did seize computer equipment.
Abrams was appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the department's board of commissioners, where he served as president. The mayor's office said in a statement that it had accepted the 63-year-old's resignation. Abrams told CBS Los Angeles' David Goldstein ...
... that recent surgery on back tumors caused him to seek out child porn from a file-sharing site called BoyWonderUSA. A federal affidavit obtained by the station indicates the board was a source of hundreds of photos of children, some as young as 4, engaged in sex.
"I was watching myself from a distance watching it," Abrams is quoted as telling Goldstein.
His wife Linda is quoted as saying:
He was at the end of his rope with the pain. He was just trying to carry on.
Abrams told the Times that, as a result of his medical issues, he had ...
behaviors that were completely out of character.
CBS2 reports he resigned Wednesday night, five days after his Tarzana home was searched by FBI agents, who believed child porn had been downloaded by someone at the residence. The investigation was ongoing, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.
On Wednesday a global child porn ring related to an online bulletin board called "Dreamboard" was broken up by federal authorities, with at least 72 arrests. At least a few of the suspects, including Kevin Richard Casey, 38, of Palos Verdes Estates, and three men from Orange County, are from Southern California.
However, there was no indication that the Abrams inquiry was related to the headline-making bust.
Read more about Abrams' situation here.
Update: Strange goings on in City Hall? Building inspectors are busted for taking bribes. Parking enforcement officers are punished for cavorting on duty with a porn star. And now this.
Our boss reminded us that this isn't the first time in recent years that someone with the initials A.A. had alleged sexuality problems.
In 2009 one Andrew Adelman, general manager of L.A.'s Department of Building and Safety, was under investigation for the alleged date-rape a woman who said she woke up next him on the morning after a pub crawl ("midrape," in the Weekly's words) only to find him nude and surrounded by sex toys. The woman said she had been drugged.
He resigned and prosecutors declined to file any charges. His high-powered lawyer, Mark Geragos, called that latter move "vindication" of Adelman.
Update No. 2: We called around to Neighborhood Council leaders for reaction. Props to David Bell of the East Hollywood NC for being the only one to have the balls to weigh in.
He said he doesn't think Abrams situation doesn't necessarily reflect on City Hall or the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment.
"I don't really know that having a growth on your back has to do with kiddie porn," he said. "But to me I think this sounds like a personal aberration. I don't think it has a bearing on leadership of Neighborhood Empowerment or City Hall."
[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]
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