A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a key figure in the sprawling corruption scandal at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the city attorney’s office to nearly three years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. ordered Paul Paradis, a former attorney turned cooperating witness for the federal government, to serve 33 months — more than the 18-month sentence recommended by prosecutors.
Paradis’ attorneys sought to have their client avoid prison and pointed to the numerous undercover operations undertaken by Paradis for the government that helped lead to guilty pleas in the corruption case.
The judge’s sentence appears to mark the final chapter in the federal criminal investigation that has engulfed City Hall since FBI agents first raided multiple government offices in the summer of 2019.
Paradis was one player in the scandal, which focused on a sham lawsuit over inflated DWP bills that was crafted by the city, part of an audacious plan for the city to sue itself in order to quickly settle the slew of claims filed by DWP customers.
Paradis admitted to taking a nearly $2.2-million kickback from another attorney working on the DWP case. He also took part in other bribery schemes, according to prosecutors.
Blumenfeld, in delivering his sentence, cited Paradis’ long legal career. He said that Paradis, an aggressive plaintiff’s attorney from New York, had a “keen” intellect and was “blessed with charm and charisma.”
But ultimately, Paradis went down a path of corruption. “Mr. Paradis was at the center” of a “greedy and corrupt” scheme,” Blumenfeld said.
Paradis, in his remarks to the judge, expressed remorse over his actions. Standing at the lectern, he also publicly accused former City Atty. Mike Feuer of lying to the grand jury and to investigators, based on statements Paradis said were made by an FBI agent in an affidavit for a search warrant.
Separately, Paradis has filed various documents, including State Bar and ethics complaints, accusing other attorneys, including Feuer, of lying or other wrongdoing.
Feuer has long denied wrongdoing in the case.
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Talking to reporters after the sentencing, Paradis said he was “devastated” by the sentence.
Despite admissions in court documents by prosecutors that the city’s legal scheme was known by other top personnel in the city attorney’s office, the U.S. attorney’s office ultimately charged only two attorneys with crimes.
Prosecutors have declined to explain their charging decisions, but a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office said earlier this year that, generally speaking, the office doesn’t pursue charges when “every element of a federal offense” isn’t established.
The DWP estimates that the scandal has cost the city more than $120 million.
Dakota Smith
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