The Los Angeles Times Pasadena Sun is reporting that Rick Van Pelt, Pasadena City College Vice President and Al Hutchings, Facilities Chief, sought a $250,000 bribe from a Los Angeles based lighting company and a trip to India in exchange for a lighting contract for the College.
Van Pelt and Hutchings have countersued claiming while they do go to India, they never solicited a bribe from the company.
Van Pelt was the former Facilities Administrator for Ambassador College and a Worldwide Church of God member.
The Pasadena Sun reports:
Lawsuit: Former Pasadena City College officials sought $250,000 bribe
Lighting company alleges executives facing criminal probe sought kickback. Van Pelt, Hutchings deny claim.
Two former Pasadena City College
administrators facing a criminal bribery probe offered a lucrative
campus contract to a lighting company in exchange for a lavish visit to India and $250,000 in payoffs, a lawsuit claims.
A
countersuit filed Tuesday by former PCC Vice President Richard van Pelt
and then-campus facilities chief Al Hutchings acknowledges the pair
traveled to India, but denies they sought a bribe.
Los Angeles-based LED Global
LLC, a manufacturer of energy-efficient light bulbs, alleges in a suit
filed July 26 in Los Angeles Superior Court that van Pelt and Hutchings
solicited kickbacks in 2011 after promising the firm a $5-million
contract to upgrade campus lighting.
The company refused to make
the illegal payments, was denied the contract and contacted law
enforcement authorities, according to a related claim LED Global filed
July 30 against PCC with the city of Pasadena.
On July 7,
investigators with the L.A. County district attorney's office seized
computers and documents from the homes and campus offices of van Pelt
and Hutchings. The men have not been charged, and the investigation
remains open, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. David Demerjian, who heads
the office's public integrity section.
PCC fired van Pelt after the raid and removed Hutchings from his job pending an administrative hearing.
LED
Global's lawsuit claims that the company's owners met with van Pelt and
Hutchings in January 2011 to discuss a contract, and that in February
2011 the firm examined the college's lighting needs.
The suit
claims that the company received a $5-million purchase order for LED
lighting from van Pelt and Hutchings on March 17, 2011, after agreeing
to pay for the men to travel to Mumbai, India, from May 1 to May 6 for a
factory tour.
During that trip, van Pelt and Hutchings twice
asked for a 5% kickback on the proposed PCC contract and on future
contracts they would broker for LED Global at other community colleges,
according to the suit.
The lawsuit also claims van Pelt and
Hutchings made “unusual and expensive” requests during the trip, asking
for company-paid stays at luxury hotels in Mumbai and New Delhi, an
excursion to the Taj Mahal, access to prostitutes, limousine rides,
lavish meals and $2,000 worth of Cuban cigars.
LED Global owners
Robert Das and Salia Smith claim the company paid for most of those
demands but refused to hire prostitutes for the men. They allege that
Hutchings — a former Los Angeles Police Department officer — made veiled threats after they refused to make the payoffs.
Van Pelt and Hutchings did not inform the college about the trip to India, said PCC spokesman Juan Gutierrez.
The rest of the article is
here.
UPDATE:
Dateline Pasadena – A lawsuit filed July 26, by Robert Das and Saila Satter Leiter Smith of LED Global Corp, LLC, against Richard van Pelt, former Pasadena City College Vice President of Administrative Services, and Alfred Hutchings, former Facilities Services Supervisor, was dismissed with prejudice yesterday by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Suzanne G. Bruguera.
Another lawsuit filed by the same persons against Pasadena City College was dismissed earlier this year.
Previously, all parties were ordered by Superior Court Judge Louis M. Meisinger to appear for a mandatory settlement conference on Aug. 28. But Mr. Das and Ms. Smith apparently left the country. They were sanctioned $3,000 by the court for their failure to appear. Judge Meisinger scheduled another mandatory settlement conference for Sept. 13. Once again ordered all parties to appear. The pair failed to appear again, and were sanctioned an additional $3,000.
On Sept. 18, Mr. Das and Ms. Smith’s attorneys, the Layfield Law Firm of El Segundo, asked Judge Bruguera to be relieved of their responsibility to represent the two petitioners and LED Global Corp. LLC. The judge granted the request.
John Schmoker, attorney for Mr. van Pelt and Mr. Hutchings, said that dismissal of the case “was a long time coming because Das and Smith did not have a single piece of evidence that could support their wild claims.
“The harm caused to van Pelt and Hutchings never can be repaired.
“A malicious prosecution lawsuit against Das and Smith is being prepared and will be filed if they return to California.”
In court documents filed by Pasadena City College, the school claimed it relied primarily on the accusations by Mr. Das and Ms. Smith to terminate the employment of Mr. van Pelt and Mr. Hutchings. The District Attorney also relied on the allegations made by Mr. Das and Ms. Smith to begin an investigation.
Mr. Das and Ms. Smith made a number of allegations, including bribery, extortion, kickbacks and racketeering. In an apparent attempt to garner additional interest in their claims, they alleged that LED Global paid for all of Mr. van Pelt’s and Mr. Hutchings’s expenses to India, that they provided a stretch limousine while in India, that they turned down a request by Mr. van Pelt and Mr. Hutchings to provide prostitutes while in India, and that while an officer with the LAPD, Mr. Hutchings murdered people. Not a single document could be produced by Das or Smith to even remotely substantiate any of their claim
