A judge blocked John Lee’s lawsuit against the city’s Ethics Commission, which has accused the Los Angeles City Council member of ethical violations, but Lee was given 21 days to amend and refile his suit.
A representative for Lee confirmed that a judge on Friday, April 5, gave Lee 21 days to amend his original filing, and the councilman plans to do so. Another court date was set for June 14.
Lee previously announced that he sued the Ethics Commission in an effort to stop enforcement proceedings against him.
Last year, the Ethics Commission accused Lee of violating governmental ethics laws by allegedly accepting and failing to report excessive gifts, including some received during a trip to Las Vegas in 2017 he took with former Councilman Mitchell Englander, who pleaded guilty in 2020 to lying to federal investigators looking into his alleged receipt of excessive cash and gifts.
Lee was Englander’s chief of staff prior to being elected to the City Council.
The Ethics Commission had also announced it would begin a probe into those alleged violations. If found guilty by the commission, Lee could face fines of up to $5,000 per violation, among other outcomes.
In the complaint, Lee’s lawyers argued the commission had gone over the four-year statute of limitations, however, the Ethics Commission said Lee “concealed” information about the gifts, ultimately delaying that legal provision.
Lee’s lawyers have also argued that the commission has failed to provide evidence of the councilman’s alleged efforts to conceal or hide information regarding the Las Vegas trip.
Courthouse News Service reported that the judge on Friday ruled in favor of a motion by the Ethics Commission for dismissal of Lee’s suit, finding that Lee had not yet exhausted all of his administrative options in challenging the ethics allegations.
Ethics Commission officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.
In November 2023, the Ethics Commission authorized staff to contract with the state Office of Administrative Hearings to serve as a hearing officer for the investigation of Lee.
Enforcement Officer Kenneth Hardy at the time explained that the commission only decided on hearing officers for an evidentiary hearing, which he described as “somewhat like a trial.”
Hardy said that during that procedure, evidence is brought forward, witnesses may be examined and cross-examined, and sometimes objections are made.
The individual administrative hearing officer will make a recommendation whether the alleged violations occurred, then provide a written report with factual findings, conclusions of law and a summary of the evidence. Members of the Ethics Commission must then determine whether the alleged violations actually did occur and, if so, what penalty is appropriate.
In a previous statement, the Ethics Commission said “Lee failed to publicly disclose those gifts on the California statement of economic interests (Form 700) that he was required to file when he left city service, and he never amended the form to disclose the gifts when he ran for Council District 12 in 2019 and 2020.”
Lee has maintained his innocence, and has called the accusations “misguided and based on conjecture instead of actual evidence.”
“The commission falsely states that the FBI started an investigation into whether I accepted gifts. Further, they falsely state I attempted to mislead the FBI. Both accusations are categorically false. They fully know I have never been a target or a subject of any federal investigation,” Lee said in a statement last year.
“Throughout this process, I have gone above and beyond to cooperate with the commission’s investigation in the name of transparency. I have provided bank statements that corroborate what I recalled about this trip, sat for interviews, and have been transparent every step of the way.”
The councilman had at one point said the investigation was an attempt to derail his efforts for reelection in the March 5 primary. While the ethics probe into Lee was highlighted by challenger Serena Oberstein, voters re-elected Lee to represent the 12th District. Lee received roughly 65% of the vote to Oberstein’s 35%, according to the official results published by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office.
The Ethics Commission previously said the investigation began in 2020 following federal prosecutors’ announcement of an investigation into the 2017 Las Vegas trip, noting Lee’s involvement.
