How Pasquale Rotella Built His Rave Empire

But the age of Sasha Rodriguez — 15 — shocked L.A.'s political establishment. The 2010 EDC, held at the Coliseum, had been designated for those 16 and older, but ID checks reportedly were lax. After sneaking in, Rodriguez took ecstasy and fell into a coma.

She died two days later.

The day after Rodriguez's death, L.A. County Supervisor and Coliseum Commission member Zev Yaroslavsky called for a "moratorium" on raves at the public venues. Then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also questioned the wisdom of holding the parties there. The whole rave program was about to be wiped off the Coliseum's calendar.

PHOTO BY ERIK KABIK

Pasquale Rotella

PHOTO BY ERIK KABIK

Pasquale Rotella at Burning Man

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More About

• Pasquale Rotella
• Reza Gerami
• Todd DeStefano
• Insomnia
• Crime and Law

Rotella could have moved the party somewhere else. But that wasn't his way; he was a fighter, and determined to keep the events in L.A. Instead, as part of its response, Insomniac vowed to strictly enforce an 18-and-older policy with ID scanners — which struck many critics as too little, too late.

But to understand Rotella is to know that his festivals are playgrounds for the faithful, and the faithful often are kids like he once was, backpacks, baseball caps and all.

"For decades there were no piles of money in this," he says. "That's why people abandoned ship. The only people who kept the scene alive was other kids. I love them. I love my people."

Rotella hired a lobbyist, contributed to Councilman Bernard Parks' re-election campaign, and soon found an ally in the former LAPD chief and Coliseum Commission member, who argued that the parties were no different from sporting events or Hollywood Bowl concerts. He was making some headway.

Then the bomb dropped.

At a closed-door session of the Coliseum Commission on Feb. 2, 2011, then-commissioner David Israel revealed what he'd recently learned: Rotella and rival promoter Gerami had allegedly paid more than $1.8 million to DeStefano outside their Coliseum rent and concessions deals.

The raves lost all support and were shut out of the venues that year. Even worse, in March 2012, Rotella, Gerami, Coliseum events manager DeStefano and Coliseum general manager Patrick Lynch were indicted as part of a case that alleged corruption, bribery and embezzlement.

The charges are still pending.

The case against Rotella relies on emails and a 2008 contract, apparently drafted by DeStefano but never signed, that called for the promoters to hand over 10 percent of event proceeds to him in exchange for his work to minimize their costs at the venue.

Payments then allegedly were made directly to side companies controlled by DeStefano.

A civil suit filed by the Coliseum against the promoters alleged that they had deprived the public venues, including the Sports Arena, of cash from 37 raves organized there since 1998. But the suit was dismissed last month, with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Terry Green saying, "I just don't see the elements of a conspiracy."

Deputy district attorney Max Huntsman, who is prosecuting the criminal case, admits the promoters "had some good results" when the lawsuit was thrown out. But, he says, "The facts and the law are very different in our case.

"We have a piece of paper," Huntsman says, referring to the unsigned contract, "where they agreed to rent the Coliseum from an employee. That to me seems outrageous."

He says DeStefano "clearly discussed that he was working on their behalf to get terms they wanted. That seems like bribery to me."

As for Gerami, he has a conspiracy theory of his own: He thinks the corruption case and lawsuit were about ridding the venues of moneymaking events so USC would have an easier time taking over the Coliseum and Sports Arena, which it has since done. He likens the USC takeover to a backroom deal, with the people's property being handed to a wealthy private university for nothing. Profitable raves would have pointed to more market value for the venues and a better deal for the public, Gerami says.

"They just handed it over for free," he says of the Coliseum Commission. "They used me and Pasquale as a smoke screen for why."

The promoters' attorneys have argued that any money paid to DeStefano was for his event-consulting work on his own time, and for his help with their events' expansion to state-run parking lots that didn't belong to the Coliseum.

Their best defense may well be one of timing. The payments to DeStefano allegedly were in place for years before 2010's EDC controversy. It doesn't make sense that the promoters would need to bribe DeStefano "to continue to hold the events," as prosecutors allege, at the Coliseum or the Sports Arena before the controversy erupted, particularly since they were clearly a cash cow for the venues.

Prosecutor Huntsman, however, notes that ravers had died before 2010, even if those deaths were more under-the-radar than Rodriguez's shocking overdose, and says Gerami and Rotella needed DeStefano's support to keep their events out of the political line of fire.

Indeed, the manager lobbied his bosses, the Coliseum Commission, to keep the raves at the Coliseum and Sports Arena even after the teen's death. In an email to the promoters, DeStefano said he was "working the politics big-time behind the scenes."

If the judge grants Rotella's motion to dismiss next week, he's home free. Otherwise, the criminal case against him could take a year to wind its way through the court system.