to deserve this?
KABC Channel 7 news had a story today about Xavier Alvarez, the Three Valleys Municipal Water District boardmember who was in a downtown Los Angeles federal court this morning to face a misdemeanor charge of lying about being a Medal of Honor winner. The KABC website's headline describes Alvarez as a "Claremont official." The fact is, Alvarez is elected by Division I--South Pomona.
UPDATE, 11:00 a.m.: As pointed out by Meg at M-M-M-My Pomona here, the L.A. Times didn't get the memo. See the Times headline on this article, "Claremont Water Official Pleads Guilty to Lying about Medal of Honor". Are the tyro-journos at Pomona College's The Student Life writing these headlines?
How Claremont ever got stuck with Alvarez, who actually represents Pomona on the Three Valleys board, is beyond us. Upland must have worked something out with KABC and Pomona after getting stuck with the 1990 "Upland" earthquake, a 5.4 magnitude temblor that had its epicenter near Mt. Baldy Rd. and Mills Ave. in northeast Claremont.
Those Uplanders are a sneaky bunch, and, boy, can they hold a grudge!
It's hard to watch Alvarez and not think, "How did those folks in Pomona ever fall for this guy's act?" Of course, when you have the mayor of Pomona endorsing the guy, that significantly enhances your chances.
We're still waiting for Pomona Mayor Norma Torres to step up and put some pressure on Alvarez to resign, but Torres seems to be too busy with her other activities to care much about the goings on in the Pomona area, as John Clifford at the FC Blog tells us.
Alvarez could at least thank Norma for her original support and her relative silence on Alvarez's legal troubles by going out on the stump for Mayor Torres as she runs for the State Assembly's 61st District seat.
In the meantime, you and I are stuck with our friend Xavier, though the KABC piece does indicate that if convicted Alvarez could face up to year of jail time, which would cause him to miss sufficient meetings to be removed from the Three Valleys board.
UPDATE, 6:00AM: Will Bigham in the Daily Bulletin reports that Alvarez pleaded guilty to the charge yesterday. Bigham's article says that the plea agreement with the assistant U.S. Attorney gives Alvarez probation and no jail time, though the judge could impose a harsher sentence:
The maximum sentence allowed is one year in prison, $100,000 in fines and one year probation, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian, the prosecuting attorney.
Alvarez originally pleaded not guilty to the medal charge and attempted to have the case dismissed by claiming the Stolen Valor Act was unconstitutional because it criminalizes free speech.
His motion to dismiss the case failed, and last week he agreed to change his plea to guilty.
The plea agreement allows Alvarez to appeal his case on constitutional grounds. Missakian has said he expects Alvarez to appeal.
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