LOS ANGELES (AP) — Five former elected officials of the tiny California city of Bell have been convicted of multiple counts of misappropriation of public funds, and a sixth defendant was cleared entirely.
Former Mayor Oscar Hernandez and co-defendants Teresa Jacobo, George Mirabal, George Cole and Victor Belo were all convicted of multiple counts and acquitted of others.
The charges against them involved paying themselves inflated salaries of up to $100,000 a year in the city of 36,000 people, where one in four residents live below the poverty line.
Former Councilman Luis Artiga was found not guilty of a dozen allegations.
After the verdicts were read, Judge Kathleen Kennedy ordered jurors to continue deliberations on 10 deadlocked counts.
The current jury deliberated since Feb. 28, when one member of an original panel was replaced and the judge told them to start over.
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