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Two big updates today on the ongoing federal bribery probe into Ted Loza, chief of staff to Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham.
First, the Washington Post today cites sources who are contradicting earlier reports from WUSA9 and FOX 5 that the councilman himself is a target of the investigation into corruption within the regulation of the D.C. taxicab industry. 'Several law enforcement sources said that Graham is not a target or even a "person of interest" in the investigation,' write reporters Tim Craig, Nikita Stewart and Del Quentin Wilber.
Second, the Washington City Paper has just posted this week's cover story, penned by Mike DeBonis and Jason Cherkis, online, and it's a doozy. The report details way more than you ever wanted to know about Loza's personal life, including allegations of some seriously icky dealings with a Salvadoran woman with whom he fathered a child. Court records show Loza was accused of physically abusing the woman and, at least once successfully, pressuring her into having an abortion. The woman in question later carried a second pregnancy to term, and a subsequent child support order may help explain some of Loza's financial problems, which also include $13,000 in unpaid property taxes. Loza has been indicted on charges of accepting $1,500 in cash and other gifts from a taxicab industry lobbyist.
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WTF is Jim Graham doing paying for Loza's abortions? Unless...
i said it here and i'll say it again:
grahamzilla, the hispanic baby killa?
(c'mon sinclair skinner, you know you want to go there)
I have to wonder if Ted Loza has something on Jim Graham and that is why Jim is standing by Ted through all those scandals.
There has got to be a reason that Jim would choose to ignore the level of violence toward women Ted has displayed.
I agree. I smell a rat! Ok, maybe he didn't know that Loza was forcing her to have an abortion, but he would have known (or should have been informed) about Loza's ongoing history of domestic violence. Sheesh.
And pushing his citizenship status? Can a councilmember even ethically do that?
Non-citizens can work for DC? Why?
Generally speaking, why not? If someone has a green card, they're employable in the US ... why should that not include municipal jobs? This isn't an elected position we're talking about.
Ted wouldn't necessarily have to "have anything" on Graham, at least not in the way you appear to suggest.
Aside from perhaps Graham himself, he probably has the best understanding of the inner-workings of Graham's constituency and base. That of course means he has considerable ability to hurt Graham.
Well, the good news for Loza is that if he owns a white suit he's fully qualified to coach collegiate basketball at Louisville.
Do you guys actually think lending someone money for an abortion makes you guilty of something? Using violence to intimidate a woman into having an abortion she doesn't want is seriously messed up, but I have a hard time placing any blame on Graham for making a personal loan for a legal medical procedure.
I think that paying for an abortion IF Jim knew the women didn’t want it and was being pressured by a man with a history of violence towards her is very, very wrong.
OK. But that's a pretty big if.
But it's not a big "if." If this account is accurate, the woman's sister contacted Graham and told him about the situation.
I think it's shady, yeah. Even if he didn't know, it just obliterates any kind of boundaries b/t personal and professional relationships. If this is true, it would be stunning that Graham would decline to intervene on the accusations reported to him by her sister based on the fact that it was a "personal" and not professional matter, but then intervene to help Loza.
I think you're being overly defensive of Graham. "A personal loan for a legal medical procedure" hardly describes what appears to have been going on.
I totally get what many of you are saying here. I don't mean to defend Graham's claims that he was unaware of Loza's personal problems, I just want to suggest that throwing around terms like "baby killa" is going too far. Separated out from everything else, paying for an abortion is not in and of itself wrong.
sommer: of course, the 'baby killa' line was a bridge too far, but i figured "why not? it's a dcist comment. we have a tendency to go over the edge."
i don't really believe that. i'm sure that a similar situation (helping a friend out with medical payments for everything from abortions to physicals) happens in this town every day. it was just too good to pass up.
The loan itself is not an ethical issue, IMO, but it raises the issue of why Graham would want a chief of staff that seems to have such a documented history of personal problems.
sommer: i have a problem with the fact that he claimed to know very little about loza's private life, while these facts clearly show that he knew quite a bit. i want to know why he felt that he had to fib about that. it paints a suspicious picture.
It is a big "if", if one pays attention to the chronology.
“On one occasion, after the parties had driven to get [the woman] a burrito, [she] reiterated that she did not want an abortion,” a judge wrote.
Kudos for using both burrito and abortion in the same sentence. Never thought it could be done- they proved me wrong.
You obviously don't go to the right burrito cart, then.
It speaks to the bigger picture about their relationship. Sorry, but if JG is willing to put $3200 on his credit card for a late-term abortion for a baby that was concieved while Ted was in El Salvador on a WORK-RELATED trip, then you can't tell me that he and Ted never talked about taxi cab legislation.
Many, many people, inside the Wilson building and out talk about what a misogynist JG is and I think the revelations in this story only reinforce that.
In March 2008, Loza tangled with a bouncer at the Marvin restaurant and bar on 14th Street, during which, according to a police report, Loza said he would “possibly bring up whether Marvin’s liquor license should be suspended.” Graham, then as now, has oversight over the city liquor licensing apparatus. He said Thursday that after the incident was reported, “[Loza] and I discussed it, and there were various discussions about that.”
Classy. I can just see him screaming at the bouncer, "You think you're better than me, huh? I'm gonna come back here with my dad and he's gonna make you have an abortion!" Then he passes out in a pool of his own puke.
This guy's the worse thing to happen to women since Roman Polanski.
The last paragraph of the City Paper story is classic:
I guess he just had to bring his taint into the discussion. Stay classy, Grahamzilla.+3, one each for Number Ones, Number Twos, and the taint.