The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office is looking into Central Basin board member Leticia Vasquez’s residency claim, reviewing her assertion that she lives in her district in Lynwood and not with her husband, attorney Ron Wilson, who lives outside of the district in Los Angeles, a spokesman confirmed.
Hews Media Group-Community News confirmed the review through District Attorney spokesman Greg Risling.
The District Attorney’s review is examining a published report by Hews Media Group last August that provided strong video evidence that Ms. Vasquez does not live in her Lynwood home near the noisy 105 Freeway on Walnut Avenue.
Instead, she resides at the home of her husband, Mr. Wilson, on Northland Drive in an upscale part of Baldwin Hills.
The Lynwood home Ms. Vasquez claims as her residence.
Ron Wilson’s home in upscale Baldwin Hills neigborhood.
The comprehensive surveillance video was exclusively obtained by Hews Media Group
California law requires that candidates live in the districts they represent.
Any violation is punishable by jail time, financial penalty or both. The election code defines a residence as a “domicile,” a home where one intends to remain.
There were prior residency complaints about Ms. Vasquez sent into Hews Media Group a full year earlier than the 2017 report.
ln 2016, Hews Media Group reported that Ms. Vasquez, who had recently married Mr. Wilson, applied for medical benefits through Central Basin Water for Mr. Wilson.
Following procedure, Central Basin mailed paperwork to Ms. Vasquez’s reported home address in Lynwood.
A few days later the mail was returned to the District marked “No such person at this address.”
Central Basin General Manager Kevin Hunt informed Central Basin Directors Arturo (Art) Chacon, Phil Hawkins, and one other director, of the returned mail, Messrs. Chacon and Hawkins subsequently told Hews Media Group.
At the time Mr. Hawkins told Hews Media Group that “Director Chacon and I were at Central Basin sitting at the conference table when Hunt told us that Central Basin sent medical forms to the house and it came back ‘this person does not live here.’ [Hunt] was dead serious.”
Mr. Chacon at the time told Hews Media Group, “I have asked the General Manager to file a complaint with the Ethics Committee and to conduct an investigation. If Central Basin fails to aggressively investigate this charge, given that we now have evidence of Vasquez not living in the district, I will personally be contacting the District Attorney and FPPC. We cannot look the other way and continue this legacy of corruption at Central Basin.”
[Editor’s Note: Hews Media Group obtained Ms. Vasquez’s husband’s home address in Baldwin Hills, entered the address in Google, clicked on Google Street View, and found Director Vasquez’s black Mercedes and Toyota 4-Runner in front of Mr. Wilson’s house in the Google Street View picture.]
Despite the evidence and statement from Kevin Hunt, no action was taken, until the video surfaced.
The video surveillance and subsequent narrative was completed by Maverick Investigation Agency, based in Fullerton, and took place over three weeks from last Feb. 27 to March 16.. See narrative click here.
The narrative indicated that Maverick methodically observed Ms. Vasquez over the three-week period, making certain that the surveillance covered every day of the week.
In a phone interview, Maverick Investigator Vai told Hews Media Group, “yeah, that was a good one,” referring to the investigation. “She lives there. She was there all the time.”
The video triggered the review of Ms. Vasquez’s residency claim by the District Attorney.
We requested comment from Ms. Vasquez and her husband.
He did not respond.
In an angry and vitriolic reply, Ms. Vasquez avoided our question.
This story originated a www.loscerritosnews.com