Member of Commerce City Council Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Obstruct Investigation into Campaign Reimbursement Scheme

LOS ANGELES—Commerce City Councilman Robert Fierro has pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge, admitting that he and others agreed to corruptly influence witnesses to make false declarations before a federal grand jury investigating Fierro’s role in an illegal campaign finance scheme.

Fierro, 40, a resident of Commerce, pleaded guilty to the felony charge yesterday before United States District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez.

Last Tuesday, Fierro’s sister-in-law and campaign treasurer, Ana Perez, 46, of Commerce, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge related to her conduct in the scheme.

Fierro and Perez are scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Gutierrez on April 23. At sentencing, each defendant faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.

“Fierro and his co-conspirators’ attempts to obstruct a federal investigation and the federal grand jury process amount to direct assaults on the integrity of the American judicial system,” said United States Attorney André Birotte Jr. “We will be always be vigilant in holding those accountable for compromising the integrity of the judicial system.”

According to documents filed by prosecutors in federal court, during the 2004-2005 City of Commerce election campaign, Fierro recruited family and friends to make contributions to his campaign, with Fierro secretly reimbursing the value of the contributions in cash. Fierro never disclosed the contributions or reimbursements to the State of California or on his campaign’s finance records.

According to Perez’s plea agreement, Robert Fierro collected and reimbursed illegal contributions on behalf of his campaign. In one instance, Perez wrote a $500 check to Fierro’s campaign, and another $500 check to the campaign of his running mate. Fierro reimbursed Perez with a $1,000 cash payment the following day, Perez admitted in court.

In the spring of 2006, Fierro, his wife, and Perez learned that the FBI was conducting an investigation into the illegal reimbursement scheme. During an interview with the FBI, Perez falsely denied she received a reimbursement for her $1,000 contribution, according to her plea agreement. Soon thereafter, Perez and others received subpoenas to testify before a grand jury looking into the scheme. In June 2006, Fierro, his wife, and Perez scheduled a meeting with contributors who had received subpoenas and attempted to convince them to falsely testify that they were not reimbursed for their contributions, according to Perez’s plea agreement.

In July 2006, Perez appeared before a federal grand jury and falsely testified that she was not reimbursed for her contributions in 2005 and that she did not participate in the June 2006 meeting, Perez admitted in her plea agreement.

Robert Fierro’s wife—Linda Fierro, who was named in an indictment along with her husband and Perez—is currently scheduled to go on trial on March 20.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Albuquerque Man Receives One-Year Prison Sentence for Tampering with Court-Ordered Drug Testing

ALBUQUERQUE—This morning in federal court in Albuquerque, a United States District Judge sentenced Albuquerque resident Brandon Ortiz, 29, to a year and a day prison term to be followed by two years of supervised release for his conviction for tampering with a witness by misleading conduct. The court permitted Ortiz to voluntarily surrender himself to a federal correctional facility to be designated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Ortiz remains on release under pretrial supervision pending designation of the correctional facility.

United States Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales said that Ortiz was arrested on July 19, 2010 on charges in a 15-count indictment alleging that he violated a federal law that prohibits obstructive conduct intended unlawfully to affect the presentation of evidence in federal proceedings. On February 14, 2011, Ortiz entered a guilty plea to count one of the indictment. Specifically, Ortiz pled guilty to helping a criminal defendant cheat on a urinalysis test, thus preventing the U.S. Probation Department from reporting a possible violation of supervision to the federal court.

According to the indictment, Ortiz’s former employer, Relevancy, Inc., (“Relevancy”) collected urine samples for drug testing from criminal defendants who were supervised by U.S. Probation and were required by court order to undergo drug testing as a condition of their supervision. Under its contract with U.S. Probation, Relevancy was required accurately and honestly to label the urine samples with the names of criminal defendants providing the samples and then to transfer the properly labeled samples to the U.S. Probation laboratory where the samples were analyzed. With the expectation that urine samples were properly labeled, U.S. Probation routinely relied on the results of drug testing on the urine samples it received from Relevancy to prepare reports on criminal defendants that it submitted to federal judges, and the federal judges relied on the reports to determine whether criminal defendants had violated the conditions of their supervision.

The indictment charged Ortiz with 12 counts of helping criminal defendants cheat on urinalysis tests by discarding their urine samples and three counts of permitting criminal defendants to bring in substitute samples instead of providing their own urine samples for the drug tests. Ortiz entered his plea to count one, charging him with permitting a criminal defendant to substitute a urine sample. As required by the plea agreement, the court dismissed counts two through 15 of the indictment at the conclusion of Ortiz’s sentencing hearing.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Joel R. Meyers.