Jun 20, 2007 11:05 pm US/Pacific
City Attorney's Wife Pleads No Contest To Charges
LOS ANGELES (AP) ―
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The warrant remains active, according to officials with the Santa Monica city attorney's office and court records reviewed by The Times.
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Delgadillo Monday said he did not realize he himself had been an uninsured motorist for about a year and his wife, for more than two years.
CBS2
The wife of the city's top prosecutor pleaded no contest Wednesday to driving without a valid license, the same day a newspaper reported she had an outstanding arrest warrant for failing to appear in court on charges of driving without insurance, with a suspended license and in an unregistered car.
Michelle Delgadillo pleaded no contest in Los Angeles Superior Court to the misdemeanor charge in connection to a 1998 traffic citation, said Santa Monica Deputy City Attorney Betty Haviland. She was ordered to serve a one-year probation and to pay roughly $500 in fines and penalties, said Haviland.
The other charges and the arrest warrant were dismissed, she said.
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said he was embarrassed about the outstanding bench warrant, which was reported by the Los Angeles Times. He said he didn't know about it until this week and urged his wife to remedy the situation.
"My wife is embarrassed about this, and I am embarrassed as well," he said. His office said she had to pay $431 in fines and penalties.
The couple also has been chronically late in paying fines for at least five parking tickets in the last three years, the newspaper reported.
One violation for parking in a red zone in December 2006 was not paid until the newspaper inquired about the tickets last month, by which time the $70 infraction had become a $174 fine with penalties.
A spokesman for Delgadillo said the city attorney's wife was responsible for all the parking tickets and delinquent payments.
The new developments were yet the latest driving-related issues to dog Delgadillo and his wife.
On Monday, Delgadillo apologized for keeping quiet about a 2004 accident in which his wife crashed his city-issued vehicle while driving on a suspended license. Delgadillo said he was reimbursing the city for the $1,222 repair.
In the latest disclosure, Michelle Delgadillo said she was "very embarrassed" and vowed to resolve the arrest warrant issue.
"I will do whatever the court instructs me to do. I apologize for any embarrassment this has caused my husband and family," she said in a statement to the newspaper. "It is completely my mistake."
Michelle Delgadillo was cited by a California Highway Patrol officer on Aug. 1, 1998, in Santa Monica for allegedly driving with an expired Montana driver's license, the Times reported, citing court documents.
The citation -- issued two weeks before she married Delgadillo and written under her maiden name, Namen -- said the tan BMW 325 she was driving had expired tags and she had no proof of insurance.
The Santa Monica city attorney's office filed a three-count criminal case. When she did not appear in court a month later for her arraignment, a judge issued a $2,000 bench warrant, according to the newspaper.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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