Alarcon's House 'Did Not Appear to Be Lived In,' Investigator Testifies

A district attorney's investigator testified today that he periodically watched the Panorama City home where Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon claimed to live and that he saw the politician there on two occasions in 2009 and 2010.

David Babcock told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar de Longoria that he saw the councilman at the property on Nordhoff Street once in October 2009 and then in July 2010 with his wife.

Babcock's testimony came at the start of an expected eight-day hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to require Alarcon and his wife to stand trial.

The 58-year-old councilman 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. Alarcon is also running for state Assembly District 39, which includes part of North Hollywood. 

Flora Montes de Oca Alarcon, 47, is charged with three counts of perjury for allegedly claiming on a provisional voting ballot, in registering to vote and on a drivers license application that she lived at a Panorama City home within Alarcon's 7th District, along with three counts of fraudulent voting involving elections in 2008 and 2009.

Prosecutors allege that Alarcon and his wife lied about where they were living so he could represent the 7th District. They contend 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 had been residing there with his wife and two daughters.

Babcock testified that he periodically watched the property on Nordhoff Street starting in April 2009 and checking on different days and different times to see if it appeared occupied.

"The house, to me, did not appear to be lived in," the investigator told the judge, who is the sister of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Babcock noted that he knocked on the front door of the home seven times without success.

"Well, it all had an appearance of a place that was unmaintained, dust," he said. "I never saw any signs that I thought were consistent with someone living at the house."

The investigator said he saw a white Toyota Highlander that he later determined was Alarcon's city vehicle parked at the property on a few occasions, and spotted Christmas lights on the house in December 2009.

Babcock testified that a search warrant was served at the property in January 2010 and that he saw improvements being made to the yard of the property in April 2010 -- after search warrants were served at both houses.

The investigator said he periodically watched a Sun Valley property owned by Alarcon's wife that was well-maintained and had vehicles in the driveway.

Babcock told the judge that he saw Alarcon's city vehicle on the street near that property on numerous occasions and saw a man he believed was Alarcon get in the city vehicle with a small child and leave the Sun Valley home in September 2009, October 2009 and January 2010.

He said he also saw a woman he believed was Flora Alarcon arriving at the residence with a young child in September 2009.

The investigator noted that he was informed about an intruder being discovered at the Nordhoff property in October 2009, and that a neighbor had seen items belonging to the councilman outside the home a day earlier.

A long-expired container of eggs was among the items found when a search warrant was served at the property in Panorama City in January 2010, according to the investigator. He said Alarcon and his wife were among those seen outside the Sun Valley property when a search warrant was served there the same day.

Shortly after the warrants were served, Alarcon told reporters that the intruder had caused significant damage to the Panorama City home during the October 2009 break-in and that he had returned to the house several times to try to repair the damage. He said then that he and his wife were temporarily staying at another house in the 2nd District.

In July 2010, just before the grand jury indicted Alarcon and his wife, he said: "Because my wife owns two homes and we have stayed in both of them during the last four years, I can understand the confusion, but my permanent home has always been on Nordhoff Street, regardless of where I may stay."

The Alarcons were initially indicted by a Los Angeles County grand jury on the same charges they are currently facing, but Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy dismissed that case against the couple May 3.

Alarcon said shortly after Kennedy's ruling that he and his wife "have maintained our innocence throughout this process and have always believed that when all of the evidence is considered, we would be found innocent."

The judge said during a hearing in April that she was concerned prosecutors had not properly considered evidence that favored the Alarcons' position when presenting the case to the grand jury.

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

Hours after the case was dismissed, the District Attorney's Office refiled the identical charges alleging that the councilman lived outside the district he represents and lied about his address.

The hearing is set to continue next Wednesday.