Alarcon and Wife Plead Not Guilty — Again

L.A. City Councilman Richard Alarcon and his wife, Flora, pleaded not guilty today to perjury and voter fraud charges -- one day after an identical grand jury indictment against the two was dismissed by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge.

The Alarcons were allowed to remain free on their own recognizance and the case against them will be back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom June 8, when a date is scheduled to be set for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to require them to stand trial.

The two each signed a waiver that allows them not to have to attend routine, non-essential hearings.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Shelly Torrealba told the councilman and his wife that they will have to appear in court whenever they are ordered to attend.

Hours after Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy dismissed a criminal case Thursday against Alarcon, prosecutors filed identical perjury and voter fraud charges alleging that he lived outside the district he represents and lied about his address.

District Attorney Steve Cooley called Kennedy's decision "inexplicable."

"We will vigorously prosecute this case," the county's top prosecutor said.

Alarcon, 58, is charged with 18 counts -- two felony counts of filing a false declaration of candidacy in December 2006 and November 2008; seven felony counts of fraudulent voting in elections in 2007, 2008 and 2009; and nine counts of perjury, including three for allegedly filing false driver's license applications.

The charges mirror those that had been leveled against him in a July 2010 grand jury indictment.

Kennedy also threw out charges Thursday against the councilman's wife, but she was also charged again in the newly filed case.

Flora Montes de Oca Alarcon, 46, is charged with three counts of perjury for allegedly claiming she lived at a Panorama City home within Alarcon's 7th District on a provisional voting ballot, in registering to vote and on a drivers license application, along with three counts of fraudulent voting involving elections in 2008 and 2009.

Prosecutors alleged that Alarcon and his wife lied about where they were living so he could represent the 7th District. They contended he lived in Sun Valley, not Panorama City as he claimed.

Alarcon has long contested the charges, insisting that he began living at the Panorama City home in November 2006, and he had been living there with his wife and two daughters.

The couple now lives in Mission Hills.

"My wife and I have maintained our innocence throughout this process and have always believed that when all of the evidence is considered, that we will be found innocent," Alarcon said today. "We were pleaded that yesterday, Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy ruled to dismiss all of the charges against us, and we remain confident that once the exonerating evidence we provided is considered, that we will be acquitted of these charges."

Kennedy said during a hearing last month she was concerned that prosecutors had not properly considered evidence that favored the Alarcons' position when presenting the case to the grand jury.

Cooley disputed the judge's legal reasoning.

"The grand jury transcripts clearly show that our prosecutors did indeed present evidence submitted by the councilman and his wife," Cooley said. "The grand jury chose not to consider it, as is their right."