“Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.”
These words were lifted from a damning email sent by Angela Spaccia to friend Randy Adams. Adams was in the process of negotiating a $457,000-a-year deal as the new police chief of the small California town.
Last year, Spaccia and several Bell officials were arrested when it was revealed that they were responsible for misappropriating millions of dollars in public funds.
According to prosecutors, the city officials rewarded themselves with millions of dollars for serving on boards and commission. Rizzo attempted to hide just how much money was being taken away from public funds and placed into the pockets of officials.
Despite being the second-in-command to city’s chief executive Robert Rizzo, Spaccia tried to pass the buck during the course of the trial.
She claimed that she had no major role in the mishandling of public funds. Spaccia even claimed to have been away from Bell’s City Hall when most of the questionable decisions were being made. Spaccia wasn’t shy about helping herself to a $564,000-a-year salary, a move she saw as merely unethical rather than illegal.
The greed of Spaccia and other officials forced anywhere from $11 million to $18 million dollars in losses for the tiny town of Bell.
Despite Spaccia’s attempts at deflecting her role in the scandal, the prosecution pegged her as an “unrepentant criminal”. She was found guilty in December for her role in the misappropriation of public funds.
Spaccio was sentenced on Thursday, the first of several ex-Bell city officials to find out their fate. She has been ordered to spend 11 years and 8 months in jail and pay millions of dollars in restitution to Bell citizens.
The harsh sentence can be viewed a sign that leniency will not be forth-coming for those tied to this major corruption case.
Spaccio’s email exchange with friend Adams no doubt came back to haunt her, representing both a nail in her coffin and a form of prophesy.
Spaccio and other Bell officials weren’t just greedy pigs, they gorged themselves on millions of dollars that was not theirs to consume. Now exposed as hogs, one by one these former Bell officials will be led to the slaughter.
No obvious reaction from Angela Spaccia as judge hands down 11 year, 8 month sentence in #Bell corruption case.
— Kate Mather (@katemather) April 10, 2014
Judge Kathleen Kennedy says Bob Rizzo and Angela Spaccia "were hogs & they basically got slaughtered" Follow @latimes for more.
— Ruben Vives (@LATvives) April 10, 2014
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