A former longtime member of the Baldwin Park City Council has agreed to plead guilty to taking bribes in exchange for his vote to ratify a police union’s contract with the city, authorities announced Wednesday.
Ricardo Pacheco, 58, was initially charged in March, but the case was kept secret as he began cooperating with the FBI in its continuing investigation of public corruption in the San Gabriel Valley, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. Pacheco, first elected to the council in 1997, resigned in June as part of his plea agreement.
In court files unsealed Tuesday, Pacheco admitted that he took $37,900 in bribes from a Baldwin Park police officer in 2018. Pacheco was serving as the city’s mayor pro tem at the time, and the officer was working undercover for the FBI.
In return for the bribes, Pacheco voted in March 2018 in favor of a three-year labor contract for the Baldwin Park Police Assn. that was approved by the council and required the city to pay officers $4.4 million, the court papers say. A police union representative could not be reached for comment, and the officer who paid the bribes was not identified.
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