Eagle Rock Building Inspector Pleads Guilty to Bribery Charges

Hugo Joel Gonzalez, an inspector with the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety who is a resident of Eagle Rock, pleaded guilty Monday afternoon to accepting thousands of dollars in exchange for granting permits on residential projects in South Los Angeles, some of which he never inspected.

Gonzalez, who had entered into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors earlier, pleaded guilty on one count of bribery before Christina Snyder, a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Central District of California, also known as the Royball Federal Building, located on Spring Street downtown.

Looking depressed and dressed in a collared, white T-shirt, white trousers and a green jacket, Gonzalez, 49, stood in handcuffs before the judge and acknowledged accepting, demanding, soliciting or agreeing to accept a total of $9,000 from an FBI undercover agent and a confidential informer who worked on one of the construction sites that the building inspector signed off on. The bribes were paid on a "date unknown and continuing until on or about April 7, 2011," according to Gonzalez's Grand Jury indictment.

On one occasion, Gonzalez told the confidential informer to put $2,000 in the console of his—the building inspector’s—car, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Akrotirianakis, the prosecutor in the case, told Eagle Rock Patch.

On other occasions, Gonzalez accepted cash bribes totaling $5,000 and asked that $2,000 be deposited into his bank account, Akrotirianakis said.

Earlier this month, a colleague of Gonzalez’s from Altadena, Raoul Joseph Germain, 60, also pleaded guilty to accepting $6,000 in bribes. The FBI arrested both the inspectors on April 8 following a sting operation. (Since then, the Department of Building and Safety has said that the corrupt behavior of Gonzalez and Germain was an aberration and not typical of the department.)

Gonzalez could face up to 10 years in prison as well as a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain (or gross loss) resulting from his offense, according to his plea agreement with federal authorities. (See the pfd file to your right for details about the plea agreement.)

Snyder asked Gonzalez if he understood and acknowledged the nature of the charges against him as well as a host of plea agreements that he had made with federal authorities. Gonzalez told the judge that he did.

“Are you pleading guilty because you’re guilty?” Snyder asked Gonzalez at one point. “Yes, I’m guilty,” Gonzalez replied.

Snyder told Gonzalez that he would not be paroled because there is no possibility of parole in the federal judicial system. Further, said the judge, Gonzalez could face a three-year period of “supervised release” following imprisonment, which would impose on him certain restrictions.

A public defender representing Gonzalez requested bail for his client, who is currently incarcerated in the Metropolitan Detention Center on Alameda Street. But Judge Snyder told the defense attorney that his request would be considered only if he made a formal motion for bail.

Gonzalez has been denied bail twice because he is considered a flight risk, Assistant U.S. Attorney Akrotirianakis told Eagle Rock Patch. “He owns property in Mexico, has family in Mexico—in fact he grew up there,” said Akrotirianakis, adding: “In the course of the [FBI] investigation, in recorded conversation with the undercover agent, he [Gonzalez] said that if he were to be arrested he would disappear in Mexico.”

Gonzalez has agreed to pay restitution to those who bribed him as well as to the FBI for the money the federal agency spent during its sting operation. “If others can prove they paid bribes, he will have to pay restitution to them, too,” Akrotirianakis said.

The confidential informer who aided the FBI in its sting operation told the federal agency that he had paid bribes 30 times to Los Angeles building inspectors, Akrotirianakis said. The public prosecutor said he had no comments whether or not the confidential informer would himself be prosecuted for paying bribes, which is a crime.

“One of the reasons to prosecute cases like this,” Akrotirianakis said, referring to Gonzalez, “is not only to punish the guilty but to deter other people who would be in a similar position to accept or solicit bribes from the public.”

Gonzalez is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 1 at 2:30 p.m. in Judge Synder’s courtroom No. 5 in the Royball Federal Building downtown.