"Federal Inmate Jose Luis Huizar" by Daniel Guss
Irony abounds as LA City Hall's racketeering kingpin starts thirteen-year prison stint, squandering an amazing life story because, he says, he couldn't resist "shiny things."
Overnight, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) finally added the name Jose Luis Huizar as an inmate, though he apparently surrendered around midday yesterday.
The corrupt former Los Angeles City Councilmember’s ego-induced predicament brings fresh irony.
Irony: He’s “White?”
The BOP lists Huizar’s race as “White,” which is ironic given that the remarkable trajectory of his life was rooted in his being born to laborer parents in Zacatecas, Mexico.
But now, at least according to the feds, he’s just another “White” inmate.
Irony: He didn’t need to steal anything
If Huizar, now formally known as Inmate 79518-112, had just stayed in the orbit of that trajectory, this morning, instead of waking up in prison, he might be waking up as mayor of Los Angeles or as a generously compensated land use expert at a high-end law firm.
Add to that the likelihood that his now-estranged wife, Richelle Rios, a fellow UCLA Law graduate, would have succeeded him on City Council. While there is zero evidence that she knew anything about his crimes, her no shows, late arrivals and early departures at meetings of her appointment on the Commission on the Status of Women demonstrate the superficial, artificial and mechanical nature of local politics. But believe-you-me, the LA Times was salivating to promote that storyline.
Collectively, the irony is that la familia Huizar could have been rolling in honest money, power and visibility. It was theirs for the taking, so to speak. Huizar didn’t need to steal it.
You say you want more irony?
Irony: What didn’t stay in Vegas
Huizar’s downfall was triggered not by City Hall whistleblowers, but by the security team at the Palazzo resort in Las Vegas, of all places.
It was there that Huizar was recognized as a “Politically Exposed Person” (PEP) gambling with casino chips in denominations befitting his Chinese billionaire host, real estate developer Wei Huang, who had the juice to quench Huizar’s racketeering enterprise thirst. When Huizar refused to assert to casino security that the chips were his, he was tossed out and his downfall snowballed from there.
Man, Vegas ain’t what it used to be… but in this respect, that’s a great thing.
Irony: All That Glitters
Perhaps the biggest irony was when Huizar pleaded for leniency during his sentencing hearing, and explained “shiny things were dangled in front of me and I could not resist temptation.”
Bullshit.
Huizar’s entire life was saturated with shiny things, like degrees from U.C. Berkeley in ‘91, Princeton in ‘94 (and his later being named to its Board of Trustees) and UCLA Law in ‘97.
Shiny things like being elected to the LAUSD Board in ‘01, and chosen by his peers as its president in ‘03.
Shiny things like being elected to LA City Council in ‘05 to finish the term of Antonio Villaraigosa before re-election in ‘07, ‘11 and ‘15.
Shiny things like the four handsome children he shared with Rios in a house — an actual family with a house — outside of downtown LA, where he enjoyed the spoils of public office from free cars and travel to discretionary funds and influence.
And boy, talk about influence, like the LAPD allegedly waiting hours before giving Huizar a breathalyzer after he admitted consuming alcohol before crashing his city-owned SUV in 2012.
From the LA Times at that time:
(Guizar is Humberto Guizar, a plaintiff’s attorney in that crash.)
And lastly, don’t forget the influence of then-City Council president Herb Wesson calling Huizar “my best friend” as he encouraged the re-election of Huizar despite endless legal troubles surrounding his office dalliances.
That shows that virtually everything in LA City Hall, like the aforementioned Commission on the Status of Women, means absolutely nothing.
It is just another shiny thing the politicians use to sustain and celebrate themselves rather than working to make life better for the rest of us.
In case you missed it, here’s my segment on “The John Kobylt Show” on KFI AM-640 yesterday when we celebrated something finally turning out right: Huizar, the latest endorsee of the LA Times behind bars.
Note: I wrote the latest, not the last.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, won the LA Press Club’s “Online Journalist of the Year” and “Best Activism Journalism” awards in June ‘23. In June ‘24, he won its “Best Commentary, Non-Political” award. He has contributed to CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)