Ex-LA utility chief on no-bail release after arraignment

The former head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power made his first court appearance Friday after agreeing with the U.S. Department of Justice to plead guilty to a bribery charge in connection with a massive litigation scheme that continues to plague the Los Angeles city attorney's office.

David H. Wright did not enter a guilty plea at his appearance via Zoom with his attorney Anthony Pacheco of Vedder Price and was granted release without bail.

"We have no objection to Mr. Wright being released on his own recognizance," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mellissa Mills said in a federal courtroom in Los Angeles before Wright was arraigned.

Wright consented to prosecution by information and waived his right to a trial by indictment. An information is a charging document describing the criminal charges against a defendant. Unlike an indictment, an information does not require a grand jury's vote.

Magistrate Judge Alexander F. MacKinnon set a trial date for Feb. 1, 2022 before U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson.

The guilty plea is expected when paperwork is completed.

The DOJ announced Wright agreed to plead guilty to one count of bribery for colluding with former special counsel to the city, Paul O. Paradis, a New York attorney who offered to pay Wright a $1 million a year salary if he pushed utility board members to approve a $30 million, no-bid contract for Paradis' company.

Paradis, who also agreed to plead guilty to bribery a week before Wright did, also admitted to receiving a nearly $2.2 million kickback from an opposing attorney in the water overbilling lawsuit against the city.

The lawsuit, brought by water customer Antwon Jones, has been mired in controversy after it was revealed Paradis had been secretly colluding with opposing counsel to settle the case in record time and without discovery. Antwon Jones v. City of Los Angeles, BC577267 (L.A. Sup. Ct., April 1, 2015).

The $30 million contract Wright pushed the utility board to approve was intended to fix the billing disasters that led to the overbilling lawsuit against the city.

Wright could face up to 10 years in prison, according to the DOJ.

"By early 2017, Wright and Paradis agreed that -- in exchange for Wright's support of a 'no-bid' $30 million contract for Paradis' downtown Los Angeles-based company Aventador Utility Services LLC -- Paradis would give Wright a million-dollar-per-year job as Aventador's CEO and a luxury company car once Wright retired from LADWP," a DOJ statement reads.

DOJ spokesman Ciaran McEvoy said he could not comment on whether more attorneys would be charged in connection with the litigation scheme which has been the subject of yearslong investigations, including an FBI raid on the city attorney's office. However, many attorneys familiar with the litigation scheme say others were either involved or negligently allowed it to happen.

Pachecko did not respond to a request for comment Friday.