Tuesday, June
4, 2013
Page 1
C.A. Throws Out
Corruption Conviction of Ex-Official
By a MetNews
Staff Writer
A
person who serves as an independent contractor to a public entity, in both form
and function, is not a public official or employee and cannot be convicted of
conflict of interest, the Court of Appeal for this district has ruled.
Div.
One Friday, in an opinion by Justice Frances Rothschild, said the felony
conviction of former Beverly Hills Unified School District facilities director
Karen Christiansen under Government Code Sec. 1090 had to be thrown out and the
case dismissed. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen Marcus had sentenced
Christiansen to more than four years in prison and to pay $3.5 million in
restitution to the district.
A
jury found Christiansen guilty of having secretly negotiated four contracts on
behalf of the district that benefited a company that she owned. Former
superintendent Jeffrey Hubbard, was sentenced to three years of felony
probation for illegally authorizing payments to Christiansen.
Rothschild
explained, however, that while Christiansen was employed as facilities director
from 2004 to 2006, she became an independent contractor to the district in the
latter year. The terms of that contract, which titled her a “consultant,” to
the district, were typical of consulting contracts, the justice said, providing
for an hourly pay rate, allowing her to work for other clients, and giving her
none of the fringe benefits that she had when she was an employee.
It
was while serving as a consultant that Christiansen negotiated the contract for
which she was prosecuted, Rothschild explained.
Prosecution
of consultants, the justice said, is inconsistent with the statute, which
provides that “[m]embers of the Legislature, state, county, district, judicial
district, and city officers or employees shall not be financially interested in
any contract made by them in their official capacity, or by any body or board
of which they are members.”
The
justice said prosecutors failed to provide “any basis to conclude that the
Legislature has clearly and unequivocally indicated that the term ‘employees’
in section 1090 should not be interpreted in terms of the common law test of
employment.” The court, she said, therefore had to apply the common law
definition and to hold “at least for purposes of criminal
prosecution under section 1090, an independent contractor is not an employee
within the meaning of the statute.”
Attorneys
on appeal were Hillel Chodos, Philip Kaufler, and Michael A. Goldfeder for the
defendant and Deputy Attorneys General Lawrence M. Daniels, and Eric E.
Reynolds for the prosecution.
The
case is People v. Christiansen, 13 S.O.S. 2812.
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2013, Metropolitan News Company