FOR WHOM BELL GARDENS TOLLS
Police Chief Keith Kilmer gets caught up in the city’s notorious towing troubles
By Jeffrey Anderson & Matthew Fleischer
Bell Gardens City Councilman Mario Beltran has issues.
Back in 2007, he was convicted of filing a false police report after a wild night with a downtown prostitute. Early in January he was sentenced to four years’ probation for illegally using campaign funds to pay for his legal defense in the prostitution case.
And, in the latest installment of the Beltran saga, the city councilman helped facilitate a criminal threat made against a political rival on the city council.
In February of 2007 Beltran made a phone call to Daniel Crespo to talk about the city’s controversial $5 million tow-truck contract with United Motor Club. The conversation heated up, but unbeknownst to Crespo, Shahram Shayesteh was sitting silently on Beltran’s line. A self-described “spokesperson” for the Bell Gardens-based towing company, Shayesteh is identified in court documents as a government informant with ties to drug traffickers. He’s been convicted of felonies in three separate states; in one of those cases he spent 30 months in a Wisconsin prison following a credit card fraud conviction.
Not content to sit quiet when Crespo refused to support Beltran on a decision over city impound policy, Shayesteh broke his silence to scream at Crespo: “I’m going to fuck you up.”
That threat, backed by Shayesteh’s hefty criminal record, was enough to convict him last Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court for making criminal threats.
Just another day in Bell Gardens.
Like nearby Maywood, where Mayor Felipe Aguirre faced death threats from his deputy city clerk Hector Duarte, Bell Gardens is a small, working-class, predominantly Latino city along the I-710 corridor where corruption – along with Mario Beltran – has found a home. Yet even by Bell Gardens’ standards Shayesteh’s trial was odd, mainly because Bell Gardens Police Chief Keith Kilmer testified on Shayesteh’s behalf.
“That’s the first time I’ve cross-examined a police chief as a defense witness,” says Assistant District Attorney Marcus Musante.
Kilmer’s defense of Shayesteh was lukewarm at best. He testified that he didn’t recall witnessing any threats against Beltran’s rival. But why exactly was Bell Gardens’ chief of police testifying on behalf of a three-time felon?
Kilmer says he had no choice – he was subpoenaed. But a series of memos and documents obtained by City Beat raise questions about his previously unexamined behind-the-scenes role in awarding the towing contract, including his decision to ignore the advice of a city attorney who recommended tossing United Motor Club’s bid altogether.
The problem began in March 2006 when United Motor Club submitted a bid to provide towing services to Bell Gardens. That bid included a letter from co-owner Seyed Madaen to Douglas Kingery of the Bell Gardens Police Department. “In the event we are selected as your towing service provider,” Madaen wrote, “we at United Motor Club promise to purchase and contribute one motor cycle or a K9 officer for the combine [sic] value of $25,000 to the City of Bell Gardens to be used by the Bell Gardens Police force.”
This wasn’t the first time Bell Gardens police would have benefited from the towing company. Back in 2004, Shayesteh gave $1,000 to a Bell Gardens police boxing club, in what then police chief Manuel Ortega described as an effort to “divert our young men and women away from drugs.”
But the $25,000 offer was problematic, and sparked a legal review by Deputy City Attorney Andrew L. Jared. His analysis of California law was that such an offer should invalidate the bid because it gives an advantage to the bidder, could be a potential vehicle for favoritism, could affect the ability of city officials to make bid comparisons, and could set a standard for additional gifts to be given after receiving city contracts.
“The bid is non-responsive in more than an inconsequential manner,” Jared wrote in his May 22, 2006 memo, which was copied to Kilmer’s predecessor, interim police chief Dave Hepburn. “The [$25,000] provision is a veiled method of rewarding government patronage rather than judging commitment to the community as intended.” Jared’s bottom-line advice was that United Motor Club’s application “cannot be considered,” according to the memo obtained by City Beat.
By the time the contract was up for city council consideration in November 2006, Kilmer had taken over as police chief. Hepburn says Kilmer had a copy of the city attorney memo. He recalls Kilmer came into his office and announced he was going to recommend United Motor Club and Southside Towing to the city council for the contract award. “I pointed out it did not appear that the United bid was legal, per the city attorney’s memo,” Hepburn told City Beat. “He said, ‘I can’t believe [United] put that letter in there again.’ Then he went ahead and sent the bid through anyway.”
As the council handed the contract solely to United Motor Club, Shayesteh, who was under indictment in federal court at the time for drug trafficking and money laundering, could barely hide his Cheshire cat grin. But once Shayesteh’s criminal record was exposed, along with an apparent conflict of interest involving Beltran and an owner of United Motor Club, a joint state-federal probe eventually led to Beltran’s recent conviction on unrelated criminal charges. Shayesteh still faces sentencing for his criminal threat conviction.
So why didn’t Kilmer heed the advice of legal counsel?
In an interview with City Beat, Kilmer flatly contradicts Hepburn’s recollection. Kilmer says he never saw Jared’s memo, and notes that it was sent to Hepburn, not him. He also denies that United’s original letter was included in the bid that was sent to the city council. He insists the city never received the $25,000 gift. “No, absolutely not,” Kilmer says. “What was included was a franchise fee, which plenty of other cities attach to contracts of this size. This was a lucrative contract, and if I hadn’t done my homework about the franchise fees, I wouldn’t have been doing my job.”
However, through a California Public Records Act request, City Beat obtained a copy of the bid package in early 2007. The incriminating letter is the very first page after the cover sheet. Last year, the FBI subpoenaed the same bid package.
Though they recognize the dramatic potential of Madaen’s letter, law enforcement officials familiar with Bell Gardens say Kilmer is not the target of an FBI probe. But they also say Bell Gardens, as well as such Southeast L.A. cities as Maywood and Cudahy, is broken. The only fix, they say, must come from the Feds.
Contacted by City Beat, the FBI declined to comment on the matter.
To read the letter from Deputy City Attorney Andrew L. Jared CLICK HERE
Published: 01/21/2009
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