Documents unsealed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office last week allege that a public official fitting the profile of state Sen. Susan Rubio engaged in a massive campaign while serving on the Baldwin Park City Council and running for state office in 2018. Marijuana bribery scheme.
Rubio, a Democrat, said through a spokesperson that she had “no reason to believe that she would be subject to any criminal charges.”
The documents do not mention Rubio by name but describe a public official who matches her profile: having fired the Baldwin Park city attorney in 2017 and 2018 and running for state office before November 2018. It is only the experience of Baldwin Park officials that meets these standards.
The information was disclosed in the plea agreement of the former Baldwin Park City attorney. Robert Tafoya admitted his role in the marijuana bribery scheme and agreed to cooperate with an ongoing public corruption investigation. Former city business manager Edgar Cisneros also admitted participating in a conspiracy in which local officials allegedly accepted bribes to issue marijuana business licenses.
According to Tafoya’s unsealed plea agreement, an unnamed Baldwin Park official demanded $30,000 in cash, which was then transferred to their state campaign account through a straw donor. The candidate allegedly hopes the small donations will “demonstrate to other donors his or her broad support in the community,” the petition states.
In exchange for the money, Tafoya claimed, the candidate agreed to use the power of a state elected official to protect Tafoya’s position and assist him financially.
The plea agreement describes a meeting between Tafoya and an unnamed Baldwin Park official in 2017, where he provided the first $15,000 in “cash in an envelope.” The unnamed official received a second cash payment of the same amount “after winning the primary in June 2018,” the filing said.
Campaign finance reports show that Tafoya & Garcia, LLP, the Tafoya-owned law firm named in the plea agreement, made two contributions totaling $2,600 to Rubio’s campaign in August and October 2018.
Rubio’s office did not respond to questions from The Times about whether she was the unnamed individual named by Tafoya in his plea.
“Mr. Tafoya has apparently brought charges against numerous individuals in an effort to reduce his sentence,” Rubio spokesman Matthew Zirberg said in a statement.
Zipberg said federal officials told Rubio she was not a target of the government investigation and that she “volunteered hours” to assist authorities in the investigation. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said he could neither confirm nor deny the claims.
Zberg also pointed to Rubio’s record of voting against approving marijuana businesses on the City Council.
Former Baldwin Park City attorney. Robert Tafoya admitted his role in the marijuana bribery scheme.
(Glenn Koenig/Los Angeles Times)
Tafoya said in his plea agreement that he agreed to the deal because he believed the officer could relieve him of his duties as city attorney. He also stated that this person would “provide [him] If they are elected to state office, there will be extra work.”
The unnamed officer, known only as “Person 20” in the plea agreement, is considered the man capable of ousting the Baldwin Park city attorney from his office. Under Baldwin Park city code, aldermen are the only officials with the authority to remove the city attorney.
The plea also alleges that the officials Tafoya bribed were candidates for state office “beginning in 2017 and ending in November 2018,” the period during Rubio’s successful first-term Senate campaign.
The Times reviewed a list of current City Council members who also ran for state office during this period. Robb Korinke runs GrassrootsLab, a public affairs firm that maintains a database of candidates running at the local and local levels.
The Times also identified two other people similar to the description of “Person 20” in the plea agreement, but missing key details. One of them is Monica Garcia, who simultaneously serves on the Baldwin Park City Council and has also run for state office. But she was eliminated in the primary, so she did not run in the November 2018 race, which is how the “20” were described in the plea agreement. Another person is Rubio’s opponent in the 2018 election, Mike Eng. But he is not a Baldwin Park public official and therefore does not have the authority to remove Tafoya from office as stated in the document.
Garcia and Enger did not respond to requests for comment.
The alleged racketeering campaign began in June 2017, when Baldwin Park City Councilman Ricardo Pacheco began soliciting bribes from marijuana companies to obtain permits to operate in the San Gabriel Valley community. The scandals prompted a statewide audit in 2023 aimed at reducing bribery in the marijuana industry.
In November 2023, Cisneros quietly resigned from the city of Commerce in southeast Los Angeles County and pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges. Tafoya resigned as Baldwin Park city attorney in 2022 and pleaded guilty in December 2023 to federal bribery and tax evasion charges.
“A lot of people think bringing marijuana into our community will benefit them financially,” said Cruz Baca, a former Baldwin Park City Council member. “They saw an opportunity to charge whatever they wanted and jumped on the bandwagon because [cannabis] Companies want to get into communities.
“It’s like a gold rush,” she added. “Some people are interested.”
A New York Times investigation found that after California legalized marijuana, corruption spread in local governments from the Inland Empire to the San Gabriel Valley and southeastern Los Angeles County.
When California legalized marijuana, many cities placed strict limits on the number of marijuana licenses they could issue. Marijuana businesses are still prohibited from operating in most cities. Due to the limited number of licenses available, competition is fierce.
Baldwin Park prohibits the transportation and laboratory testing of marijuana, but allows retail sales and local manufacturing, cultivation and distribution of marijuana. City officials began issuing permits in late 2017 and said they would cap the number of permits they would allow at 25. business completely.
