A former Orange County Superior Court clerk and nine other men pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal charges stemming from an alleged bribery scheme to fix criminal and traffic cases over a five-year period.
The alleged ringleader -- Jose Lopez Jr., 36, of Anaheim -- was a former clerk in the state court system. Prosecutors allege he pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars to resolve more than 1,000 cases until the spring of last year, when the alleged racketeering scheme was uncovered. The 10 defendants were ordered back to court Oct. 21 for a status hearing.
A trial date was tentatively set for Nov. 1. Two more defendants named in an indictment unsealed this morning are expected to be taken into custody soon, according to Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. The investigation came to light in June of last year when attorneys were summoned to the West Justice Center in Westminster for hearings to set court records straight.
Orange County Superior Court officials said a clerk noticed "irregularities" in a case in March of last year, prompting her to report the issue to a supervisor, who did more research.
"Within a day or two, a report was run and we became aware of a pattern where it appeared that a large number of cases had irregular minutes, all of which appeared to be entered by a lone employee," Orange County Superior Court officials said in a statement released last June.
Hundreds of cases were recalled to determine if anything improper had been done. The 38-count federal indictment unsealed today alleges Lopez accepted bribes as high as $8,000 to fix criminal cases. Hundreds of defendants got charges dismissed, fees reduced or avoided jail time in DUI cases in exchange for payoffs to the clerk or other "middlemen," the indictment alleges.
Lopez allegedly doctored computer records to make it look like a defendant had paid required fees or completed mandated community service, Mrozek said. In some cases, he allegedly created records to make it look like a defendant had pleaded guilty to reckless driving and drunken driving charges were dismissed, according to Mrozek.
Some signatures of prosecutors were forged as part of the scheme, the indictment alleges. Some of Lopez's "team of recruiters" for bribes also made payoffs to get cases fixed, Mrozek alleged.
Attorney Dean Steward, who represents one of the suspects, accused prosecutors of over-charging the case.
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"In no way is this a racketeering case," Steward said. "It's another example of dramatic over-charging by the federal government, to try to leverage guilty pleas."
