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Susan Rubio
December 13, 2024
The complaint at the end of the story.
LOS ANGELES – Assemblyman Bill Essayli, R-Norco, has filed an ethics complaint calling for an immediate investigation of Person 20 a member of the state Legislature named in the plea agreement filed by attorney Robert Tafoya, who may have been part of a cannabis bribery scheme in Baldwin Park.
It was exclusively reported by LCCN that Tafoya and Robert Pacheco’s homes were raided by the FBI in 2020.
According to documents made public by federal prosecutors last week, a public official who was unnamed — but whom the Legal Lens Blog (followed by the LA Times story) reported fits the profile of state Sen. Susan Rubio, D-Baldwin Park — was part of a cannabis bribery scheme when the official served on the Baldwin Park City Council and campaigned for state office in 2018.
Rubio, a Democrat, said through a spokesman that she “has no reason to believe that she would be included in any criminal allegations.”
The documents do not name Rubio, but they describe a public official who fits her profile: someone who was in a position to terminate the Baldwin Park city attorney in 2017 and 2018, and was running for state office through November of 2018. Rubio is the only Baldwin Park official whose experience matches those criteria.
Page 16 of the plea agreement reads:
Funneling $30,000 in Cash to Person 20’s Campaign
Starting in 2017 and ending in November 2018, Person 20 was running for State elected office. To raise campaign funds, Person 20 asked defendant on two occasions to provide him/her $15,000 in cash that Person 20 could then funnel to other individuals to make conduit contributions to his/her campaign.
Person 20 wanted these small donations to demonstrate to other donors his/her broad support amongst the community. Defendant agreed on both occasions to provide the cash because he believed Person 20 could remove defendant as City Attorney and understood that Person 20 would provide defendant additional work if he/she were elected to State office.
In or around October 2017, while in the primary for his/her election, Person 20 first asked defendant for $15,000 in cash. Defendant agreed to provide it and then withdrew $15,000 from the Tafoya & Garcia, LLP account at Wells Fargo in four transactions between October 25, 2017 and October 26, 2017.
Defendant then met with Person 20 and provided him/her the $15,000 in cash in an envelope. After Person 20 won his/her primary in June 2018, Person 20 once more solicited $15,000 in cash from defendant in order to further engage in the conduit contribution scheme described above.
Defendant agreed but, before providing the money, wanted assurances from Person 20 that he/she would take care of defendant, protect his job as the City Attorney, and assist defendant financially or professionally in his/her official capacity if he/she obtained State elected office. Person 20 agreed, and defendant withdrew $15,000 in cash, which he provided to Person 20.
