Vehicles to serve as 'mobile service centers' for probationers, parolees
Board declines to back proposal for committee to monitor sheriff's department
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Developer behind scheme to buy ex-Palm Springs mayor's votes sentenced By City News Service
VOL. 9, 11,
NO. 234
Riverside police release video of in-custody death By City News Service
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video was available on social media Saturday of the arrest of a man by Riverside police who died while in custody. Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez told viewers "Whenever a critical incident occurs, we are committed to providing our community with as much information as we can as soon as the investigation permits." The video showed an officer contacting a man just after 6:30 a.m. June 20 who had locked himself inside the restroom of the McDonald's in the 7400 block of Indiana Avenue and was not responding to people who checked on him. The man was identified by Gonzalez in the video as 27-year-old Peter Villalobos who Gonzalez said had an outstanding warrant for suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. The video showed the officer leading Villalobos out of the restroom and him refusing to lean against the police See Riverside police Page 27
Palm Springs City Hall. | Photo courtesy of Carol Highsmith/Library of Congress
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businessman involved in arrangements to illegally procure support from a former Palm Springs mayor for downtown development projects was sentenced Monday to a year of probation. Richard Hugh Meaney, 59, pleaded guilty in 2023 to a misdemeanor count of financial conflict in a government contract. During a hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice Monday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Joshlyn Pulliam certified the terms of Meaney's plea agreement with the District Attorney's Office and imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense, His sentencing officially ends all proceedings connected to a case that began over a decade ago, implicating the defendant, fellow developer John Elroy Wessman, 86, and ex-Mayor
Steve Pougnet, 62. Earlier this month, Pougnet was sentenced to two years' felony probation after pleading guilty in May to nine counts of bribery by a public official, eight counts of illicit financial interest in public contracts and one count of conspiracy, as well as no contest to three perjury counts. He was additionally ordered to pay $325,000 in penalties. In June, a Banning jury acquitted Wessman of nine counts of bribery of a public official and one count of conspiracy to commit a felony. Meaney had testified against his one-time colleague during the threeweek trial. All felony charges against Meaney were dismissed in 2023. However, he soon afterward pleaded guilty to the reinstated misdemeanor count. Deputy District Attorney
Amy Zois had alleged Wessman and Meaney conspired to favor Pougnet with high-dollar rewards to gain his support for the men's redevelopment projects between 2012 and 2014. Zois said Pougnet's $3,605a-month salary during his two terms was "peanuts" compared to the hefty cash infusions into his bank account facilitated by the developers. She argued it was Wessman's influence that landed Pougnet work on the Palm Springs International Film Festival, for which he received $150,000 in 2012. The festival board chairman ended the mayor's consultancy when it didn't net results. Zois alleged the developers provided $225,000 in illicit payoffs to the mayor, all to ensure his active support for their downtown
renaissance projects, which court records said included construction of The Dakota, the Desert Fashion Plaza, The Morrison and Vivante. Pougnet left office in 2015 after two terms. He, Wessman and Meaney were criminally charged, for the first time, in 2017 and later indicted by a grand jury. The case began as a federal corruption probe until it was turned over to county investigators in 2016. A judge in December 2020 dismissed all counts against Wessman, characterizing them as baseless, but the charges were reinstated by the Fourth District Court of Appeals in Riverside less than two years later. "This is ... about corruption and the public trust," Zois said during his trial. One of Wessman's attorneys, Elliot Peters,
See Corruption trial Page 27
Board OKs liens against property owners who owe fire mitigation fees By City News Service
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he Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved the Riverside County Fire Department's request to attach fire mitigation charges to the tax bills of 450 property owners, whom officials say failed to pay the cost of abating weeds and other potential fire hazards around their parcels. In a 5-0 vote without comment, the board signed off on the fire department's cost recovery stemming from the county's Fire Hazard Reduction Program. No property owner appeared before the board to speak. According to the department, the owners — whose properties are located in unincorporated communities countywide — are delinquent and altogether owe a total $295,356 under the The amounts, which range from $423 to $2,348 per property, stem from activity in 2024. The reduction program involves deploying contractors to clear weeds and related overgrowth that might otherwise fuel brush fires during wildfire season, which generally spans See Land liens Page 28