Cedillo Supports Disgraced Bell Gardens Politician

Councilmember Gil Cedillo is in the media spotlight for reportedly supporting a former Bell Gardens councilmember who once worked for him and who was sentenced to three years probation in 2006 for lying to the Los Angeles Police Department that his council badge and wallet were stolen after he was mugged in downtown L.A.

The disgraced politician, Mario Beltran, 36, also pleaded guilty to misusing campaign funds and banned from public office for four years. He was recently hired as a spokesperson by California Senator Ronald Calderon, who has himself been at the center lately of a federal corruption investigation.

In an article last Saturday in the Los Angeles Times, Cedillo was quoted as saying that Beltran is a “model citizen” who had been the victim of a mugging after he did “something that most 27-year-olds do at one time—he drank too much alcohol.”

Click here to read the full Times story.