Rocky Delgadillo's Flameout

It was one indicatorof the feeding frenzy over Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo's ethics peccadilloes that when the L.A. Weekly sought comment from Doug Dowie, a convicted PR executive whom Delgadillo accused of padding billings to the city by a staggering $4.2 million, a Dowie friend inadvertently sent a response intended for Dowie, exclaiming, "Your life is on the uptick and [Delgadillo's] is destructing without you having to do a thing (it's very Zen to learn to take pleasure in the work of others)."

In 2005, during the Fleishman-Hillard PR billing scandal, Delgadillo was applauded for his tough stance on political corruption in City Hall. The media sucked it up, for months covering the apparently huge Fleishman-Hillard fraud against taxpayers. Dowie was found guilty, but the headline-grabbing claim by Delgadillo and City Controller Laura Chick of a $4.2 million fraud — a figure so high it attracted federal prosecutors and international coverage and helped sink Mayor James Hahn — was greatly exaggerated. A federal judge ruled the fraud came to $529,000, an amount that, while steep, would not have engendered nearly the outrage.

But that was back when Rocky could do little wrong and his being off by millions in his attacks on Fleishman-Hillard was largely accepted by journalists. Now, it seems, he can do nothing right. He improperly let his wife drive his city-owned GMC Yukon, which she banged up — then he got it repaired at taxpayer expense. He and his wife both drove without car insurance for a year, and she failed to get a city license for her home-based business. Now, he is denying rumors that his staffers baby-sat and ran private errands for him on the taxpayers' dime.

It may sound like small stuff to the average Joe — something that might not get the city attorney more than a slap on the wrist by the California Bar Association. But this is a lawyer with endless political ambitions who probably wants to run for district attorney or city controller in 2009, yet has managed to turn as noncontroversial a job as city attorney into a potential disaster.

He styles himself as an Antonio II, but he's never mastered the sound bite or been treated kindly by the cameras he craves. And now the media pack, which Delgadillo has spent much of his time massaging, has turned against him.

A few days after the Los Angeles Times reported that Delgadillo's wife, Michelle, got in an accident in a city-owned Yukon in 2004, he dodged reporters at a press conference in Culver City about at-risk youth. "We can talk about all those other things some other time," he stumbled. "We are here today to talk about these kids." Under media pressure to discuss the various controversies, he held a second press conference, which made little sense, and his press deputies had to explain to reporters what he really meant.

"There are two fundamental rules to damage control," says Dan Schnur, former political director for Governor Pete Wilson. "The first is to get your story out as quickly as possible. The second is to get it out correctly so you don't have to keep talking about it. I don't know if any of those rules held up so well for Rocky this week."

The first trouble hit on June 9, when the Times reported that Michelle Delgadillo was ticketed in 2005 for failing to obey a right-turn-only sign while driving with a suspended license, which was revoked from July 25, 2004, to March 6, 2007, over her failure to provide proof of insurance after an accident.

"He is not responsible for his wife," Council Member Dennis Zine tells the Weekly. "[But] you wouldn't think the prosecutor of Los Angeles, his family, would have a warrant or operate [a vehicle] without a valid driver's license."

That news would have barely registered had it not come the same day that a miffed Delgadillo told a judge that Paris Hilton, who pleaded no contest to driving on a suspended license, should serve more time in jail. Delgadillo accused Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca of preferential treatment for letting Hilton out after three days of a 23-day sentence.

"If law-enforcement officials are to enjoy the respect of those we are charged with protecting, we cannot tolerate a two-tiered jail system where the rich and powerful receive special treatment," Delgadillo insisted. An infuriated Baca strongly denied that Hilton got special treatment, and Baca's claim turned out to be true. Hilton had served about the same jail time as others convicted of similar crimes — around 10 percent of her sentence.

It wasn't the first time Delgadillo had come down hard on the blond celebutante. When a judge in May sentenced the hotel heiress to 45 days in jail, Delgadillo remarked, "The ruling sends a clear message that in the city of Los Angeles, no one is above the law."

In fact, Delgadillo has set himself out as a fighter for the common man. But public reaction is showing that nothing pisses off everyday people like politicians who think rules are for everybody else.