Scott Schenter

Scott Schenter, the former appraiser at the center of the corruption probe into Assessor John Noguez, pleaded not guilty this afternoon to 60 counts of falsifying department documents.

After the plea hearing, district attorney investigators returned to the courtroom to ask that Schenter be placed in "special housing." Judge Upinder Kalra approved the request.

The D.A.'s office makes such arrangements for public officials and for those whose safety might be threatened in custody, said D.A. spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons. In the past, the D.A.'s office has also obtained special jail accommodations for potential witnesses.
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Fugue

Californians are leaning toward approving a $1-per-pack tax on cigarettes. That's a no-brainer, since most of us don't smoke, and laws about lighting up in public have been getting more and more draconian.

But a funny thing happened on the way to November.

Support for this new tax, proposed under Prop. 29, is starting to burn out.

And we think we know why:

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Paul Robinson

Black population in AD 50

In the current issue of L.A. Weekly, the feature story "Democratic War for L.A.'s Richest" takes a look at the hard-fought, highly contentious political race for California Assembly District 50 -- one of the wealthiest, most celebrity-packed, left-winger districts in the entire country.

It also happens to be where a whole bunch of white people live -- in the above map, which shows the black population in AD 50, there's just a sprinkling of African-American folks in the southeastern section of the district.

"[AD 50] is the remaining bastion of white L.A.," geographer Paul Robinson told us for the article.

Here are more maps that Robinson drew up for the Weekly that show what he means. The pink areas in the maps are generally where the white people live and the various shades of red are where other folks reside, depending on the map.

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Some Sherman signs on their way to the landfill

Now that we're down to the last 10 days of the Berman/Sherman blood feud, things are getting pretty silly.

First, the Howard Berman camp was high-fiving about Brad Sherman's photoshopped mailers. Sherman sent mailers to Jewish households that included a picture of his mother. But she was airbrushed out of the ones that went to the goyim. Everyone had a good laugh at Sherman's expense.

Now, Sherman is accusing the Berman camp of stealing his lawn signs. OK, typical campaign sniping. But Sherman claims he has the photos to prove it.

Take a look. At right is a photo of some Berman precinct-walkers in possession of some folded-up Sherman signs.
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Jerry Schneiderman

Jerry Schneiderman was not your ordinary real estate developer. For years, he was a rabble rouser who took on the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority after tunneling for the Red Line subway collapsed parts of Hollywood Boulevard.

"You can never stop a government public works project entirely," Schneiderman told me last summer for the L.A. Weekly cover story "Beverly Hills Versus the Westside Subway." But "you can starve it."

Schneiderman died in December 2011, but years earlier, in 1979, his business partner had been murdered by a hit man. Schneiderman was never the same, and was always on the lookout for his own safety. Los Angeles journalist Chip Jacobs has written a gripping book about Schneiderman's story -- The Ascension of Jerry -- which took years to research and write. Jacobs and I recently talked about Schneiderman, who struck up a friendly working relationship with me back in the late 1990s...

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Carmen Trutanich

In 2008, Carmen Trutanich was a private lawyer making his first run for public office. He needed to be ready for an onslaught of attacks in the city attorney's race, so he hired a research firm to dig through public records and exhume all the skeletons in his background.

VR Research came back with a report that ran to 100 pages. It includes a litany of lawsuits that together paint Trutanich as a trigger-happy litigator.

Now that Trutanich is running for D.A., the report is coming back to bite him. The L.A. Weekly recently obtained a copy.

Here are five of the weirdest secrets that Trutanich dug up on himself:
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Harvey Milk

Today, May 22, California celebrates Harvey Milk Day in honor of the slain San Francisco supervisor who was one of the first gay elected officials in the United States.

Milk was assassinated by former San Francisco supervisor Dan White in 1978. A few months before his death, he gave a stirring speech at the Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco. In it, Milk implores gay Americans to come out of the closet as a way to end homophobia and anti-gay politics.

His remarks, which can be found in Randy Shilts' important biography about Milk titled The Mayor of Castro Street, are still relevant today as they were nearly 34 years ago...

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Multnomah County Sheriff's Office

Scott Schenter

Updated with booking photo and further detail of the arrest. Update 2: Councilmen Dennis Zine and Paul Krekorian call for "independent assessment" of properties reduced under Noguez.

Scott Schenter, a former appraiser, was arrested this morning and charged with 60 felony counts in connection with a growing corruption investigation at the L.A. County Assessor's Office.

Schenter is accused of wrongfully lowering property values by $172 million. He has said he did so at the direction of Assessor John Noguez, who is also a target of the district attorney's probe.

Schenter was arrested at an apartment in Hillsboro, Oregon, at about 11:30 a.m., and held on $1.5 million bail.

"He had a defeated look to himself when we saw him coming out of the apartment," said Eric Wahlstrom, spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service.
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Carmen Trutanich: Can you believe this guy?

Update, Thursday: Attorney general declines to investigate. More below.

D.A. candidate Carmen Trutanich was caught last week in a fib about being shot at by gang members when he was a young prosecutor in 1985. The L.A. Times' Jack Leonard discovered that in fact, there were no gang members, and no gun.

OK, everybody tells a fish story once in a while. But instead of shrugging it off, Trutanich lashed out. In a letter to the attorney general (posted after the jump), Trutanich accused the D.A.'s office of "suspicious political activity" and called for a state investigation into whether his opponents stole his personnel file in order to conceal evidence of his heroics.

That's where it gets really troubling. Trutanich was accusing the office he wants to lead of political corruption. The allegation was false. He knew it was false. And we can prove he knew it.
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Carmen Trutanich: Investigating the 1st Amendment

Carmen Trutanich is running for district attorney on a pledge to bring "honesty, transparency and integrity" to the D.A.'s office. His record on honesty is a bit checkered, and lately his commitment to transparency has come into question as well.

In a recent debate, Chief Deputy D.A. Jackie Lacey criticized Trutanich for advising the L.A. Fire Department not to release its response times. Trutanich warned fire officials they could be criminally prosecuted for making such data public, according to a letter issued by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Trutanich has also refused to release an hour-long video on the First Amendment, which was shown to Occupy L.A. protesters in lieu of prosecution. The reason? The video is part of an "ongoing investigation."
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D.A. Steve Cooley goes public

District Attorney Steve Cooley took his "pay to play" case against Assessor John Noguez to the public on Wednesday, calling on Noguez to resign in numerous TV, radio and print interviews.

Cooley's round of publicity was unusual in that no charges have been filed against Noguez, and no charges are expected for some time. D.A. investigators are still sifting through mountains of evidence gathered in searches last month, and prosecutors have not decided whether to take the case to a grand jury.

If anything, it appears the D.A.'s investigation has hit a snag, as some assessor employees are refusing to speak with the D.A.'s office without a written order from Noguez.
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Assemblyman Mike Gatto

Assemblyman Mike Gatto is preparing to introduce legislation in response to the alleged "pay-to-play" scandal at the L.A. County Assessor's Office.

The bill focuses on tax agents, who are hired by property owners to push for lower appraisals. As the L.A. Weekly has reported, tax agents commonly contribute to candidates for assessor, and encourage their clients to do contribute. The L.A. district attorney's office is investigating allegations that one tax agent, Ramin Salari, used contributions to obtain favorable treatment from Assessor John Noguez. (Their attorneys have denied those allegations.)

Gatto's bill, AB 404, would require tax agents to register as lobbyists, in counties that already regulate lobbying. The bill leaves it up to the counties to craft specific regulations, but such rules could include bans on contributions and gifts, and requirements to disclose client lists.
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raulbocanegra.com

A group of women said today that a candidate for California's 39th district, Raul Bocanegra, has faced an allegation of sexual harassment "several years ago," a claim that they want to know more about as he faces off against embattled L.A. city Councilman Richard Alarcon for the office.

A letter from the dozen female signatories went out today to assembly rules committee chair Nancy Skinner.

It makes this request:

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Austin Beutner

Austin Beutner, the former L.A. jobs czar, has dropped out of the race for mayor in 2013, saying he needs to "be engaged with my family in a way which is at odds with the demands of a campaign."

Beutner got out to an early start last year, with the backing of former Mayor Richard Riordan. But he struggled to raise money, and spent $110,000 more than he raised in the second half of 2011.

A first-time candidate, Beutner never got comfortable as a politician. He had a soft-spoken manner, and seemed unwilling to commit to the exhausting demands of running for office. A virtual unknown, Beutner would have had to spend heavily to introduce himself to voters.

His departure seems to work in favor of Controller Wendy Greuel.
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Updated with response from the Times on next page.

Fred Noland

By Hillel Aron

The Los Angeles Times printed an odd take on Academia Semillas del Pueblo, the failing charter whose kids are nowhere near state standards on reading, writing, adding and subtracting -- even as compared to their identical, struggling, working-class, Latino, socioeconomic twins throughout California.

The school's founder Marcos Aguilar is protected on high by Los Angeles Unified School District Board President Monica Garcia. The LatExtra article in the L.A. Times was designed to survey the debate from a safe distance after L.A. Weekly beat the Times to the Semillas story.

"Things would be easier if Academia Semillas del Pueblo didn't have such low test scores," writes longtime education reporter Howard Blume. Easier for whom?

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Eric Garcetti runs off the polo field after tossing the first ball

Updated with video.

Councilman Eric Garcetti, a candidate for L.A. mayor, has been on a fundraising tear lately. He had an event at Moby's house. He had one with Jimmy Kimmel. In a couple weeks, he'll have one with (OMG OMG OMG) Howard Dean.

But it'll be hard to top the event he had on Sunday at a polo match at Will Rogers State Historic Park. The invitation was sent to members of the Supper Club, who were enticed with an "exclusive polo day out on the grounds" with the future mayor of L.A., "whilst enjoying lunch and cocktails." Wait, whilst?

Garcetti tossed out the first ball, which seems to be a lot like dropping the first puck in hockey, except then you have to run like hell to avoid being knocked over by a horse.
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Howard Berman

Rep. Brad Sherman has been hounding rival Rep. Howard Berman over his support from Super PACs for several months. But if the first TV spot from the "Committee for an Effective Valley Congressman" is any indication, he doesn't have much to worry about.

The spot, which is posted after the jump, looks like it could have run on late-night TV 30 years ago. Daily Kos pans it, saying the production values are "worse than something you'd see from a local furniture company." The ad includes text-wipe effects and a spin transition, all of which may be designed to remind voters that Berman has been in office since 1983.

Take a look:
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Alarcon!

Updated at the bottom: After charges were refiled, Alarcon and wife pleaded not guilty (again) today. First posted at 12:40 p.m. Thursday

L.A. city Councilman Richard Alarcon got into some hot water after a squatter broke into his home and thus, he said, temporarily forced him out of his own district in 2010. That brought allegations that he hadn't been living there for a while -- neighbors said the place appeared to be abandoned -- and had instead stayed in a house nearby but outside the district.

And that could be illegal. Well, justice has spoken:

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School's out for Mayor V!

The University of Southern California isn't just for strapping young scholars anymore. Today and tomorrow, the USC Price School of Public Policy begins an ongoing series of classes that will school current politicians in "public transparency and ethics, leadership, governance and environmental policy."

Hallelujah! We can think of no government offices more starved for such a schooling than those of our broke, dysfunctional L.A. County municipalities.

Yet one City Hall in particular is oddly missing from the class roster:

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West Hollywood Mayor Jeff Prang, undated photo

As scandal continues to engulf L.A. County Assessor John Noguez, his office has begun a quiet campaign to reassure the Board of Supervisors that the situation is not as bad as it appears.

The head of the effort is West Hollywood Mayor Jeffrey Prang, whom Noguez hired in March as a special assistant. In a series of e-mails to the chief deputies of each supervisor two weeks ago, Prang took aim at an L.A. Weekly cover story on the assessor scandal.

The story was the first to give the account of Scott Schenter, a former appraiser who alleges that Noguez encouraged him to slash roll values in hopes that the beneficiaries would donate to Noguez's campaign.

In his e-mails to the supervisors responding to the story, Prang claims that the assessor's office has an affidavit from Schenter that exonerates Noguez. In fact, the affidavit (which is posted below) implicates him in Schenter's activity.
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