A federal judge indicated Friday that more than 1,000 pages of confidential documents from a federal criminal investigation into the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office and the Department of Water and Power will be unsealed.
The Times and Consumer Watchdog requested the documents to better understand the government's criminal case and whether former City Atty. Mike Feuer bears no responsibility for a scandal involving a sham lawsuit and an extortion plot. Foer has long denied any wrongdoing.
In a preliminary ruling, US District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. said the documents, which mainly consist of dozens of search warrants filed during the government investigation, will be unsealed, with personal data redacted.
The names of government officials, along with “erroneous” individuals, will not be redacted — a blow to prosecutors who have sought to hide the names of officials from the public, Blumenfeld said at a hearing Friday.
The Times and the consumer watchdog are expected to work with the US Attorney's Office to prepare the documents for publication in the coming weeks.
Much of Friday's hearing focused on Feuer and whether an FBI agent's alleged assertions that Feuer lied to a grand jury and lied to the FBI should be redacted.
The FBI agent's alleged comments, made in an affidavit for a search warrant, were revealed in court by the defendant, Paul Paradis, at his sentencing in November.
Paradis, a former lawyer turned cooperating witness for the federal government, pleaded guilty to accepting a roughly $2.2 million bribe from another lawyer working on the DWP case and was sentenced to 33 months in prison.
Paradis had ingratiated himself at City Hall, befriending the city's top officials. An outside attorney from New York, Feuer was hired to assist in litigation related to the DWP, and then went on to secure separate DWP contracts.
Later, he secretly recorded high-ranking city officials and was present when armed agents raided the home of DWP director-general David Wright, who is serving a six-year prison sentence after conspiring to give Paradis a lucrative contract.
Jerry Flanagan, an attorney for the consumer watchdog and the Times, told Blumenfeld that the FBI agent's comments were an “opinion” not subject to federal rules requiring grand jury information to be kept secret. Flanagan also argued that “the cat was out of the bag” because Paradis publicly revealed the alleged comments.
Blumenfeld appeared concerned about protecting the confidentiality of the grand jury process and said he would rule at a later date on the issue.
Feuer said he had no knowledge of any crimes. In a 2022 letter, the U.S. Attorney's Office told Feuer that he was not a target in their criminal investigation.
When The Times asked last November about the FBI agent's alleged statements, Foer pointed to the 2022 letter.
Feuer told the Times last year that he gave the U.S. Attorney's Office his phone in 2020, but investigators did not search his home or office.
A former state Assemblyman and Los Angeles City Council member, Feuer ran for mayor of Los Angeles in 2022 but dropped out shortly before the primary. Last month, he finished fourth in the primary for the congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Adam B. Schiff.
The 1,400 pages of search warrants and other documents requested by The Times and Consumer Watchdog between 2019 and 2021 were released.
Court filings filed by prosecutors in the criminal case show that some individuals, including city officials who remained anonymous in the filings, participated in or were aware of various schemes.
Only four people were ultimately charged, and prosecutors said their case ended last year.
The criminal prosecution centered on a 2015 class action lawsuit brought by DWP agents over serious errors caused by the utility's new billing system.
The suit was secretly written by Paradis, then working in Foer's office, who turned the suit over to an outside attorney to file suit against the city.
The goal, according to prosecutors, was to settle all claims brought by DWP's various clients on terms beneficial to the city.
Prosecutors also uncovered other unethical and illegal schemes, including an illicit payment that involved the city attorney's office.
Blumenfeld said at Friday's hearing that he expected the name of one person, Julissa Salguero, to remain unredacted in search warrants and other documents.
“Ms. Salguero is the ultimate wrongdoer,” Blumenfeld said, describing why her name should not be redacted.
Prosecutors have never named or charged Salguero, but their court filings mention a former employee of a Beverly Hills law firm who threatened to expose the city's collusive lawsuit over DWP billing errors.
The employee “stole or improperly retained” documents showing the collusive suit and demanded money in exchange for their return, prosecutors said in court documents.
Thomas Peters, a top aide to Feuer, was charged with aiding and abetting extortion after unnamed city employees ordered him to take care of employee threats, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors never charged any other senior employees from the city attorney's office.
After pleading guilty, Peters was sentenced to nine months of home confinement and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.
Salguero's attorney, William Pittman, told the Times on Friday that he “respectfully disagrees with Judge Blumenfeld's opinion.” He said his client had never been charged, was not charged, and had no criminal history.
“With regard to the dissolution proposal, Ms. Salguero was never notified [of the case]Bateman said.
