VOC: More Troubles for Miguel Pulido

In last November’s campaign for Mayor, surrogates for Miguel Pulido made a major campaign issue of a 30 second Facebook photo that his challenger, council member Roman Reyna, posed for photos with two old friends — one of whom allegedly had ties to a Latino gang.  The Santa Ana Police Officer’s Association suggested in mail attacks that Reyna’s old friends made him unfit to be Santa Ana Mayor.  Now the Voice of OC is reporting that Pulido’s campaign hired and generously paid a convicted killer as a campaign consultant to manage phone banks during the 2012 campaign.

John P. Vega was paid about $4,300 to manage a phone bank campaign from his home and no business permit for a home-based business was issued to Vega.  VOC also reports Pulido paid more than $13,000 for phone banking during the last election cycle, which one consultant viewed as “a lot of money.”

From the story:

On Aug. 12, 2003, 19-year-old John P. Vega and his buddy Hugo Rivera got into a fight with the man they were staying with, a longtime friend they affectionately called “Grandpa.”

According to court records, the 38-year-old Grandpa, whose real name was Raul Aplizar Jimenez, was high on methamphetamine and Vega and Rivera claimed he had attacked Rivera with a knife. Then, in what they described to investigators as self-defense, Vega and Rivera bludgeoned to death their much smaller friend with a 30-pound dumbbell and a crowbar.

When the beating was over, there was blood spattered all over the walls of Jimenez’s home, court records show. His corpse lay face down in a pool of blood, his hands bound with shoelaces. The tools of his slaughter were hidden beneath a white pillow just a few feet from his battered skull, the records show.

Police charged Vega and Rivera with second-degree murder, and a jury later convicted them of voluntary manslaughter. Vega was sentenced to six years in state prison for his part in the crime and was let out on parole on March 30, 2012.

At some point within the next nine months, Vega, who has never registered to vote and spent the majority of his adult life in prison, went to work as a political consultant for Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, according to Pulido’s campaign finance disclosure forms. The forms show Pulido’s campaign paying John P. Vega Consulting $4,300 for phone bank services.

However, there are no other public records showing that John P. Vega Consulting  even exists.

TheLiberalOC contacted the Santa Ana Police Association for comment on the story and was told no one was available to speak to us.

VOC reported that Pulido claimed $6,000 in phone banking expenses to Vega from January through June 2013 timeframe, or two months after the election was over.  Pulido defeated David Benevides in that race.    State law says  the expenses must be reported when the services are rendered, or that the $6,000 paid to Vegas could be considered a “success fee.”  Pulido could be in possible violation of the 1974 Political Reform Act because the disclosure forms are also signed under penalty of perjury.

The payments could also represent another chapter in an ongoing Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) investigation into whether Pulido illegally wiped away campaign debts from his disclosure forms.

The latest revelation of poor judgment by the Mayor comes on the heels of an ongoing FPPC investigation into Pulido illegally purging campaign debts from his campaign disclosures and an ongoing investigation into the real estate swap that the Orange County District Attorney’s office has yet to file charges.

The LiberalOC was unable to reach Roman Reyna for comment.