XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: drumroll@jerrybrownclown.com   
      
   A state Senate roiling from turmoil this year was dealt another   
   blow Friday when a Los Angeles judge sentenced Democratic Sen.   
   Rod Wright to three months in jail for lying about where he   
   lived when he ran for office in 2008.   
      
   Judge Kathleen Kennedy upheld a jury’s verdicts from January   
   that found Wright guilty of eight felonies, including perjury   
   and voting fraud. She sentenced him to 1,500 hours of community   
   service and three years’ probation in addition to the jail time,   
   which she ordered him to begin on Oct. 31.   
      
   From the bench, Kennedy admonished Wright for disrespecting the   
   electoral process when he ran for office claiming a home he owns   
   in Inglewood as his official address, while really living   
   outside the Senate district in the tonier neighborhood of   
   Baldwin Hills.   
      
   “I think jurors really have a nose for when someone is lying,”   
   she said, according to an Associated Press report from the   
   courtroom. “It didn’t smell right then, and it doesn’t smell   
   right now. … I think the jury complied with the law and came to   
   the right conclusions.”   
      
   The judge said Wright is barred for life from holding elective   
   office. But it didn’t appear Friday that the ban would take   
   effect immediately, leaving open the possibility that Wright may   
   continue to draw his $95,291 annual salary until he steps down   
   or is formally ousted by his Senate colleagues.   
      
   They voted in March to suspend him, taking away his ability to   
   perform any legislative duties but maintaining his pay.   
      
   Two other Democratic senators suspended on the same day as   
   Wright – Sens. Ron Calderon of Montebello and Leland Yee of San   
   Francisco – are awaiting trial after being indicted in unrelated   
   federal corruption cases. They are likely to continue receiving   
   their salaries until their terms in office expire at the end of   
   this year.   
      
   At the time he moved to suspend all three senators, Senate   
   leader Darrell Steinberg said it would be improper to   
   permanently expel Calderon and Yee since they have been charged   
   but not convicted. And in Wright’s case, Steinberg said, a   
   conviction wasn’t final until the judge ruled.   
      
   Now that she has, Steinberg called on Wright to resign. But he   
   stopped short of saying he’d call a vote of the Senate to expel   
   him.   
      
   “Senator Wright has a right to appeal as a citizen, but his   
   constituents cannot continue without representation in the state   
   Senate. I have stated from the beginning my belief that somebody   
   convicted of a felony while in office cannot continue to serve.   
   I have therefore asked Senator Wright to resign,” said a   
   statement from Steinberg, D-Sacramento.   
      
   Republican leader Sen. Bob Huff also called on Wright to resign.   
      
   Wright’s attorney said the senator plans to appeal. But because   
   the appeal process will likely take a year and a half to two   
   years, it’s not likely Wright will avoid jail.   
      
   “By all probabilities the sentence will be served far before the   
   court of appeals rules,” said his attorney, Winston Kevin   
   McKesson.   
      
   McKesson said he had no information on whether Wright planned to   
   step down from the Senate. Wright’s spokeswoman Jennifer Hanson   
   said he would not comment Friday.   
      
   Senate officials say only elected lawmakers can boot a fellow   
   legislator from office. If Wright does not step down, they say,   
   it would take another vote of the Senate to expel him and stop   
   his pay. Gov. Jerry Brown will only call for an election to fill   
   Wright’s Senate seat after the office is vacant, said Brown   
   spokesman Jim Evans. The office becomes vacant, he said, if   
   Wright steps down or is expelled.   
      
   But the California Constitution says, “Laws shall be made to   
   exclude persons convicted of bribery, perjury, forgery,   
   malfeasance in office, or other high crimes from office or   
   serving on juries.” And Rick Hasen, a professor at UC Irvine and   
   an expert in election law, said that based on a 1977 court   
   ruling, he thinks Wright is automatically vacated from office   
   based on the judge’s verdict Friday.   
      
   In a case challenging whether former Lt. Gov. Ed Reinecke’s   
   perjury conviction became official when the jury found him   
   guilty in July 1974 or when the judge upheld the jury’s verdict   
   in October 1974, the Court of Appeal wrote that the conviction   
   happened when the judge ruled:   
      
   “Thus, on October 2, 1974, and not before, Lieutenant Governor   
   Reinecke automatically forfeited his office and his rights and   
   powers incident thereto. That forfeiture created a vacancy.”   
      
   The last time the Senate voted to expel a sitting senator was in   
   1905, Senate Secretary Greg Schmidt has said. Four lawmakers   
   convicted during the FBI corruption sting in the 1990s resigned   
   before legislators voted to expel them.   
      
   Wright’s case marks a rare conviction in an area of the law that   
   has dogged many state legislators – but had not sent them to   
   jail.   
      
   California law requires legislative candidates – unlike members   
   of Congress – to live in the district they seek to represent.   
   But with districts redrawn every decade, it’s not uncommon for   
   politicians to claim multiple homes. Many volley between the   
   capital city and their home districts, and some change addresses   
   as district lines move or political ambitions change.   
      
   Last year, The Sacramento Bee reported that Democratic   
   Assemblyman Richard Pan did not appear to live in the Pocket-   
   area condo he claimed was his legal home during the 2012   
   election, but instead spent most nights with his wife and   
   children in Natomas, outside the boundaries of the district he   
   represents. He is now running for state Senate in a district   
   that includes both Natomas and the Pocket.   
      
   In December, Republican Sen. Ted Gaines announced he was moving   
   out of Rocklin, where he had rented a home while running for the   
   1st Senate District, and back to his family’s longtime home in   
   Roseville – outside the district.   
      
   In 2012, Republican Sen. Mimi Walters faced a lawsuit from an   
   opponent in her race for an Orange County Senate seat, who   
   alleged she didn’t really live in the Irvine apartment she   
   claimed as her address.   
      
   Pan was not charged with a crime. Gaines got permission from   
   Senate officials before he moved. The lawsuit against Walters   
   was thrown out by a judge.   
      
   Wright argued that he met all legal requirements to run for   
   office using the Inglewood home he has owned since the 1970s as   
   his official address. Wright testified that he never claimed a   
   homeowners tax exemption, registered to vote or applied for a   
   driver’s license using the Baldwin Hills address.   
      
   But prosecutors showed pictures of the Baldwin Hills home,   
   complete with Wright’s cars parked there and closets full of his   
   clothes. Baldwin Hills neighbors testified that they frequently   
   saw him coming and going, while Wright’s Inglewood tenant said   
   she never saw him spend a night in that home.   
      
   Wright’s attorneys asked for a new trial, arguing that the   
   prosecution wrongly instructed the jury to consider where Wright   
      
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