The Binge Cases: Denise Didn't Come Home - The Sellout | 7: The Coverup

Episode Date: November 30, 2021

Huizar’s downfall started with a sexual harassment lawsuit. He didn’t have the hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle the suit on his own... so the Feds say he relied on a new friend. A developer who had plans to build a 77-story hotel in downtown LA. A Neon Hum Media and Sony Music Entertainment production. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to binge all episodes now or listen weekly wherever you get your podcasts. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, wherever you get your podcasts. I want to give everyone a big content warning.

There are some really upsetting things in this episode that include sexual harassment. All right, let's get right into it. We're going to get back to the indictment, but we got to talk about the sexual harassment lawsuit, because without it, you might not even be listening to this podcast right now. Let's go back in time to 2006. It's just after Huizar was elected to city council. That's my producer, Carla Green. She's going to help us talk through the lawsuit. Huizar hires a woman named Francine Godoy. She's about 27 at the time.

Huizar's 38. And Godoy actually overlapped a little bit with Alvin. Remember, that's Huizar's staffer who eventually ran against him. Right. Alvin actually mentioned that when we spoke to him. He heard rumors that Francine Godoy and Huizar were romantically involved. And one day, when Alvin was still working for Wisad, this odd thing happened.

You know, we were at a community called Monterey Hills. It's just between El Sereno and Highland Park. And we had an event there. Council member comes up, he gets there, he looks around, he says, this is a nice area. A lot of beautiful condominiums here. Francine's looking for a location to live. If you hear of anything, can you let me know to find her a place to stay?

I was like, oh my goodness, maybe the rumors are true. That was a little shocker for me to get a request like that from, I guess, one elected official to a boss looking for a place to stay. In the years after Alvin left Ouissad's office, Francine Godoy got promoted a bunch. Yeah, by all accounts, seems like she was rising pretty quickly. Her salary goes up too. When she's hired, she's making about $50,000 a year.

And by the time she leaves, her salary was over $130,000. She was the deputy chief of staff. And it was October 2013 when Godoy filed her sexual harassment lawsuit against Wiesad. Right. And this is really the first time the public hears anything about an abuse of power from Wiesad. It's like this first big crack in Wiesad's reputation up to that point. Exactly. But so by the time Godoy files her lawsuit, she's been

working for Wiesad for about seven years. And her lawsuit just kind of sums up most of that time in one sentence. Right. It just says, during the course of her employment under Wiesar, plaintiff was subjected to regular physical and verbal sexual harassment, including propositions for sexual favors. Which means this behavior was a pattern. This was happening for years. Right. So it's the fall of 2012, and Godoy says Huizar tells her she should run for this position on the community college board of trustees. Godoy is into it, and then one night Huizar calls her to his office. She gets there

around 8. Here's what she says happened. Huizar tries to have sex with her and basically makes it clear that if they don't have sex, he's not going to support her for the community college position. She says she refuses to have sex with him. And then Godoy says that Huizar basically flies off the handle. She says he starts cursing at her, taking stuff out of the doors in her office and taking it into his office. He's having a fit. He's not just threatening to be vindictive. He's out of control.

And he's her boss. So she leaves the office at this point. A couple weeks pass, and then it's a Thursday night, sometime around 10 p.m., and Godoy says Huizar tells her he's parked down the street from her house and that she should come meet him. Oh my god. Yeah. So Godoy goes to meet him. She says he tells her he doesn't feel close to her and that they need to be close to make this whole campaign thing work, whatever that means, which is her campaign to be on the community college board of trustees. And this conversation in the car is

literally the night before an important meeting for Godoy and her campaign. This is a meeting that Huizar has set up. Anyway, the lawsuit says Godoy understood that all of this stuff about being close was basically Huizar making sexual advances. She says no again. And then Huizar says he's going to cancel the meeting the next day. Godoy gets out of his car and then he calls her, quote, many times between the evening of November 1st, 2012 and the morning of November 2nd, 2012. So he's blowing up her phone all night long. Godoy doesn't answer. Apparently, Huizar even calls her mom to ask if she knew where Godoy was. Okay, let me just say, this is so disturbing.

Like, can you imagine being Francine? Your boss is calling you all night long and then calling your mom. Yeah, it's harassment. So then the next morning, Godoy shows up to that important meeting. And the people she's meeting with are surprised to see her. Basically, Huizar apparently told them she had decided to withdraw her candidacy. And from Godoy's perspective, Huizar is making good on his threat. If they're not close, he's not going to support her.

And then it all kind of goes downhill from there. Huizar reduces her job duties. She's told to work from home. Eventually, she resigns and she gets a job at the Department of Sanitation. And then she sues him. And then she sues him. A woman who served as L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar's deputy chief of staff has now filed a workplace discrimination and sexual harassment complaint against the city of L.A. and against her former boss. So this is a big deal when the news breaks.

Huizar basically says, Francine Godoy and I had a consensual affair. It was a mistake, and I'm sorry. And Huizar is not the only one who says he and Godoy had an affair. Mayra Alvarez actually says this, too, in her lawsuit that she files years later, that she was also aware of an affair. Mayra Alvarez actually says this too in her lawsuit that she files years later that she was also aware of their affair. But that's not actually what Godoy is talking about in her lawsuit. Right. She's focusing on this specific thing that happened over the course of a couple of weeks in the fall of 2012. The harassment. We start calling her all night, calling her mom. Yeah. And we said denies those allegations. His response is basically just, we had an affair.

He's really trying to use that to undercut her and make it seem like she was a liar. Yeah. His lawyer said, here's the quote, Ms. Godoy and the council member had an occasional and consensual relationship, which the council member deeply regrets. He has apologized to his wife and family, and he and his wife are currently working on repairing their marriage. So Jose and Rochelle stay together? Yep. And part of why this matters so much is because he's about to run for re-election. Exactly. So he's up for re-election in 2015, and this lawsuit ends up being an issue that comes up a lot in that campaign. There's this Los Angeles Times editorial that comes out with the headline, City Hall or Frat House.

And then a couple months after Godoy files her lawsuit, the Los Angeles Times breaks a story about Huizar's past. The masseuse. Right. The masseuse Right So we don't know her name It was never made public But back in 2005 A masseuse said that Huizar groped her While she was giving him a massage We know about it because LA Times reporters

Got a hold of the criminal complaint from back then And this was when Huizar was still on the school board Yeah, he was on the school board He was actually running for city council When he allegedly groped her This is from the LA Times story. Huizar, quote, grabbed her legs during the massage and attempted to pull her toward the massage table. Additionally, at the conclusion of the massage, the suspect grabbed the victim's leg, arm, and breast. So just as Huizar's running for re-election, it's looking like he's got this history of sexual misconduct.

There are these two different women saying he acted inappropriately. The councilman is up for re-election for a third four-year term in March 2015. He said he's optimistic that voters will judge his accomplishments in the election. And then just like that, Godoy and Huizar settled a lawsuit privately. It goes away. It still comes up in the campaign, but it's been settled. And Huizar, as we all know, he got reelected. So the settlement was for $570,000, which we only find out later because it wasn't a public settlement paid for

by city money like a lot of settlements for lawsuits against city council members this settlement was private which meant that wizar had to come up with a half a million dollars himself and the story of how we sad got that money is in a lot of ways the story of the beginning of the end of his career it set off a chain reaction of events that led all the way up to his indictment. From Neon Hub Media and LA Taco, this is Smokescreen, The Sellout, a podcast about a politician dogged by allegations of corruption, harassment, and pathological pettiness. It's about the residents who fought gentrification even as their neighborhoods were auctioned off to the highest bidder. I'm your host, Maraika Smeda. This is Episode 7, the cover-up.

You could think of what Wissad did to Downtown LA as a kind of collaboration between him and this rotating cast of real estate developers with a specific vision and millions of dollars to spend. Or you could think of it like this. For the better part of a decade, Jose Wissad's true constituents weren't the people who arguably needed his help the most, the thousands of low-income and unhoused people living in downtown LA. His true constituents were the growing number of wealthy people living downtown and the companies who wanted to build housing for them. Or at least, that's how he acted. His focus was on making deals on parcels in CD14. Kim Cooper from Esoteric Tours. And to that effect, there was a lot of branding that was being done, which was meant to sort of create this idea that downtown L.A. was, you know, kind of West Hollywood.

It was the strip. So, the indictment says it all started in February 2013, at the latest, less than a year before Godoy filed her lawsuit against Weesod. It was that month that Weesod met Wei Huang. Huang is the chairman and president of Shenzhen New World Group, which had plans to build a 77-story hotel in downtown LA. There's this one picture of Wei Huang that you can find in most articles about him and we said,

He looks friendly but in charge. His hair is thick and shiny. And his face has got that glow. Like, I really want to know his skincare routine. Okay, so there's Wei Huang. And there's one other person whose name you need to know right now. Raymond Chan. And Raymond Chan wasn't a developer or businessman. He worked for the city. It seems like he's the kind of guy who just loves to introduce people to each other. He's like a professional business matchmaker. Like, oh, you've never met John? You guys have to meet. You would have a lot to talk about. Chan allegedly goes on to help coordinate a lot of what Wisad is accused of. Here's Nancy Mesa. This was the start of the corrupt relationship that developed with Wisad and Chan. Back then, Chan was working as the head of LA's Department

of Building and Safety, which issues construction permits, among many other things. It's a powerful position. Chan goes on to work for LA Mayor Eric Garcetti doing economic development. By the way, both Chan and Huang are charged in the same indictment as we said, of bribery, and a handful of other charges. Both have pled not guilty. And just as a reminder, anything you hear about the FBI investigation in this episode comes from either that indictment or other court documents. Anyways, it's 2013 and Chan introduces Huisa to Huang, the hotel developer. And then, eight months later, the day Francine Godoy files her lawsuit, Chan allegedly texts Huizad saying the chairman wants to know if he can do anything to help.

As it turns out, there is. And for lots of people, this is where the story of Ouissade's alleged corruption begins. Here's Nick Pacheco, the former city council member for CD14. According to the FBI investigators, you know, the special agent, in terms of his report, it was the re-election pressure that he put upon himself about this lawsuit, the sexual harassment lawsuit, that caused him to get himself involved in this whole fiasco. But it was that re-election that was weighing on his mind. And just about a year after the lawsuit was filed, Francine Godoy's lawyers offer Wissad a private settlement,

which means two things. The city of Los Angeles wouldn't pay for it. And the terms of the settlement would not have to be made public. We all found out about it from the indictment, which was made public six years later. But in 2013, Weisad knew it would take $570,000 to settle the sexual harassment lawsuit. And you'll never guess who comes to his rescue. Huang, the Shenzhen New World chairman, allegedly leaps into action.

Here's what the feds say happened. Huang loans his new friend, Weisad, $600,000, which is more than enough to make the lawsuit quietly disappear. And he's discreet about it. Huang back-channels the money to Weisad so he can get a loan to pay the settlement and keep things on the down low. And Raymond Chan, the business matchmaker, helps make it happen.

This is from a text that a consultant involved in the scheme allegedly sent one of Wisad's staffers. Ray really, really helped out Jose on the sexual harassment lawsuit shit. And because Ray was there for him, and without Ray, I don't think, I really think that Jose would have just resigned. Basically, Godoy's lawsuit could have ended Wisad's career, but Raymond Chan allegedly helped him get the money to make it all go away. So the councilman owes him. By the way, we sent a request for comment

to Raymond Chan's lawyer, Harland Braun. And in response, he called my producer Carla with a 10 minute rant about China and xenophobia. He talked about China's quote, 25,000 miles of high speed rail and how its education system is superior to ours in the United States. He went on to claim that Raymond Chan has never broken the law and that the feds were only going after him because he was born in China. He said, quote, if he were a wasp, he never would have been indicted. That same day Braun called my producer, one of the federal prosecutors on the case filed a declaration about Braun. They said that Braun had been harassing them for months

and accusing them of prejudice against China and its citizens. The government noted Mr. Braun's, quote, continued and escalating personal attacks are unwelcome, inappropriate, and unprofessional. Please stop. Okay, let's get back to the loan that Huang gave Wissad to pay off the sexual harassment suit. Kim Cooper from Esoteric Tours again.

Paying off and getting that case to go away was also an investment in the future because it was starting to hurt his campaign. And it simply went away. So he won again and he got to stay in this position of power and that made him useful to a lot of people. Before and after that generous loan, Wisad allegedly does a bunch of stuff for Huang. He helps arrange a meeting for Huang's son

with a university in Southern California. He helps smooth over some labor and union disputes for that 77-story hotel that Huang wants to build in downtown LA. In 2017, on a phone call between two of Weisad's employees, one of them says, Chairman Wei Huang should have all the leverage in the world because of what Weezar owes Huang. $600,000. So Raymond Chan is a helpful guy. And then in 2014, Chan introduces another developer to someone in Weezad's office,

specifically to this Weezad staffer named George Esparza. And let's stop for a second to talk about Esparza because he is a big part of the investigation. Scott Frazier. George Esparza, who was a point person essentially for Wiesar's alleged criminal activity, has pleaded guilty and he has stipulated to actions that the federal government has accused him of taking part

in. Esparza is kind of like Wisad's right-hand man in all this. And by 2014, Esparza is deep in it. That's when he meets that developer through Raymond Chan. The developer's company is called Shenzhen Hazens. So we've actually talked about Shenzhen Hazens before, remember? It's a company that donated over a million dollars so Wissad could bring back Broadway and get that trolley. You might remember that that donation was legal because it was part of an official development agreement between the company and the city of Los Angeles. But what allegedly happened next between Wissad and Shenzhen Hazens escalated to questionable and then to clearly illegal. It starts with some favors that WeSAD does for Shenzhen Hazens. The company gets WeSAD some Katy Perry tickets as a thank you. And then over the course of the next four years, WeSAD allegedly develops a complex system of bribery with the

developer. Shenzhen Hazens also did not respond to our request for comment, but their subsidiary company did agree to pay over a million dollars to avoid prosecution by the federal government. Anyways, the complex system of alleged bribery, it's really complicated. I'm not going to get into it, but it's all in the indictment. And it culminates with a $100,000 commitment from the company to Rochelle's political action committee. At one point, George Esparza takes the helpful step of explaining the strategy. He's on the phone with someone and the FBI who's listening in. Here's what he allegedly says. We saw his approach is that he's going to strong arm everyone to the

pack. So his idea in his mind is that, okay, people are going to support us because they don't want people to fuck with projects, you know? By the way, there is so much stuff that we're skipping over here. So many alleged bribes and favors for developers. Because if I told you about all of it, your eyes would just glaze over. It's dizzying. But there's one more thing I want you to know. It's about a high school. And that's after the break. So, remember how WeSAD went to a Catholic school in Boyle Heights? You know, Salesian High School? Well, apparently, even the Catholic school got mixed up in WeSAD's alleged corruption. Embattled L.A. City Council member Jose Huizar helped his wife, Rochelle, raise money for the high school that Huizar graduated from, Salesian High School in Boyle Heights, by asking people

who did business with the city to donate to the school. The public learned that there were specific strands of the investigation that tied to the funding of Bishop Morris Elysian High School, Huizar's alma mater, and also a place where his wife, Rochelle Huizar, had held a job as a fundraiser. Here's what happened, according to the indictment. Starting in 2015, Esparza solicited money from developers with projects in CD14 to give to E Salesian High School, where Rochelle worked as a fundraiser. At one point, Salesian High School's website actually had a list of donors just all out in the open. It had a weird number of real estate developers listed,

including some who aren't actually mentioned in the indictment and haven't been accused of doing anything illegal, like 15 Group. Remember that company that owns Wyvernwood and Boyle Heights? Anyways, about half the donors listed on Salesian's website in 2018 were construction or architecture companies or real estate developers. The high school has since deleted that page, but when it was up, it was this testament to ESAT's special relationship with developers in plain sight. Just like when he'd write down those meetings with Executive M in his official calendar. It was unabashed.

Brazen, even. By the way, we reached out to Salesian High School for comment. And they declined to comment. So, Wisad is spending a lot of time with developers. They're going out to eat together. They're doing favors for each other. Wisad is telling developers he'll help them out. And he's delivering.

But all this time, it's not clear how much Ouissade is thinking about his constituents, their needs, and their problems. Because he would also promise his constituents he'd help them out. But would he deliver? Constituents like Nancy Uyemura, a Japanese-American artist who lived in the arts district. If you don't mind, could you tell me about what happened at 800 Traction and the eviction? I'm not going to be able to talk about it. Well, the eviction happened years ago, and it's still kind of hard for Nancy to talk about. Yeah, I think I blocked out a lot of it.

Nancy didn't just lose her home when she got kicked out. She and her neighbors lost that whole community of Japanese-American artists held together by the building they lived in and worked in for years. This community just got wiped off the map, bulldozed over, erased. And let me just say again, we asked Wisad and his lawyers about 800 Traction and other stuff in this episode, they never got back to us. Here's Nancy. That was my first experience to actually see whitewashing because they wanted to erase the history of that building and to erase the history of the artists that were in that building. And I thought, wow, I've been a little naive all these years. I mean, that was

like the first time that I found out about the redlining districting. And then I figured out, okay, well, I've always lived in these enclaves that people of color could live in, right? I didn't know any better, but there was a reason why we lived in those different places. And it makes you a little depressed sometimes. Before they got evicted, just like Arturo, the mariachi musician, Nancy and other residents of 800 Traction actually reached out to Weesad for help staying in their building.

And it seems like people in his office were actually interested in helping them. We really thought he was our friend. Our hope was that he was gonna come through and change things or get us some money or something. Here's what they didn't know. By the time Nancy and others had met with his staffers, Wisad had allegedly already taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from developers. He had already paved the way for that arts district development to move forward with minimal affordable housing. By that point, Wiesad was years deep in

helping grease the wheels for developers. If Nancy and her neighbors needed Wiesad's help to save their home, they didn't know it yet, but their fate was already sealed. And as it turned out, so was Wisad's. Next time on The Sellout, Wisad goes to Vegas, and he inadvertently helps the FBI crack the case, wide open. That means, Jesus, if you're going to go to federal prison, you want to do it for a million dollars, not $5,000 strippers. The Sellout is produced by Neon Hub Media and LA Taco. I'm your host, Mariah Castaneda.

My co-reporters are Alexis Olivier-Ray and Carla Green. Carla Green is our lead producer and she wrote the episodes. Our editor is Catherine St. Louis. Vikram Patel is our consulting editor. Associate editor is Stephanie Serrano. Associate producer is Liz Sanchez. Our executive producer is Jonathan Hirsch. Samantha Allison is our production manager. Fact check producer is Jonathan Hirsch. Samantha Allison is our production manager.

Fact checker is Sarah Ivry. Our sound designer is Hans Dale Sue. Eduardo Arenas made our theme music. Other original music by Moni Mendoza with an additional track from Blue Dot Sessions. Thanks to our voice actors Memo Torres Jorge Labastiva Jod Captain Chad Addy and Woodrow Curry Special thanks to Erica Lindo

Javier Cabral Tanner Robbins Haley Fager Natalie Wren Adrienne Riskin Shara Morris Navani Otero Janet Villafana

Vanessa and Jorge Casaneda and Ivan Fernandez If you want to know more about what you've heard on the show so far head over to Janet Villafana, Vanessa and Jorge Castaneda, and Ivan Fernandez. If you want to know more about what you've heard on the show so far, head over to smokescreenpod.com to see a beautiful map of some of the places we talk about, made by Tommy Gallegos, as well as new reporting and interviews. By the way, if you like this show, please, please, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Before we go, I just wanted to say thank you for listening to The Sellout.

We hope you're loving the show as much as we love making it. And we really want to hear from you. Your feedback goes a long way, and it only takes a few minutes. Just head to smokescreen.fans to answer a few questions. We're so excited to hear from you. We're so excited to hear from you. I'm so excited to hear from you. Thanks for listening. See you next week.