A Los Angeles lawyer pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges that he arranged and funneled bribe payments from representatives of a nationwide garbage hauling company to Carson City Council members in exchange for their votes on a $60-million trash contract.
Robert Dennis Pryce Jr., 53, also entered guilty pleas to allegations that he accepted kickbacks from a real estate broker and a contractor while serving as a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee assigned to liquidate debtors' assets.
Pryce faces 6 1/2 to 8 years in prison and will be required to pay about $600,000 in restitution under terms of a plea agreement reached with prosecutors. He remains free on bail pending sentencing Oct. 27.
A partner in a downtown law firm, Pryce was the last of 10 defendants to plead guilty in the Carson corruption case.
The federal investigation is continuing, however. Building on information gathered during the Carson probe, FBI agents two weeks ago arrested the president and a board member of the West Basin Municipal Water District on charges of extorting kickbacks from contractors. The district provides water to nearly 1 million residents in southwestern Los Angeles County.
Pryce and his lawyer declined to talk to reporters as they left the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson, where he pleaded guilty to 49 criminal counts that included extortion, bribery, mail fraud, bankruptcy fraud, money laundering and making false statements to government agencies.
In the Carson case, Pryce admitted negotiating a deal in which he, former Carson Mayor Daryl W. Sweeney and former City Council members Raunda Frank and Manuel Ontal were to share a $585,000 bribe from Browning Ferris Industries in return for awarding the company an exclusive, 10-year city garbage contract. The city rescinded the deal after indictments were returned last year.
Sweeney, Frank and Ontal, who have pleaded guilty in the case, were expected to testify against Pryce at his trial next month.
Prosecutors also intended to introduce secretly recorded conversations between Pryce and Ontal about the bribery scheme. While the FBI investigation was in its early stages in 2000, Ontal walked into the U.S. attorney's office and confessed that he and his colleagues and been taking bribes from an assortment of businesses.
Ontal agreed to cooperate, and he wore a concealed recording device during meetings at which the pending garbage contract was discussed.
