Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo's wife has an outstanding warrant for her arrest for failing to appear in court nearly nine years ago on charges of driving without insurance, with a suspended license and in an unregistered car, court records and officials confirmed Tuesday.
In addition, documents obtained by The Times show that in the last three years the Delgadillos were chronically late in paying fines for at least five parking tickets.
One violation for parking in a red zone in December 2006 was not paid until The Times inquired about the tickets last month. By then, the $70 infraction had become a $174 fine with penalties.
A spokesman for Delgadillo said Michelle Delgadillo was responsible for all the parking tickets and the delinquent payments.
Michelle Delgadillo's scofflaw status was yet another embarrassing development for the city's top prosecutor, who Monday disclosed that he had periodically let his wife drive his city-owned vehicle on a suspended license for personal errands.
In 2004, she had an accident while driving her husband's city-assigned GMC Yukon, which was repaired at taxpayer expense.
After ducking the issue for days, Delgadillo, who presides over the nation's third-largest municipal law office, held a news conference Monday to say that he was reimbursing the city for the $1,222 repair. He also acknowledged that he did not realize that he himself had driven as an uninsured motorist for about a year, while his wife had driven without insurance for more than two years.
Delgadillo told reporters at his news conference that he was sorry about the situation involving his wife and acknowledged that he should have stepped forward immediately with information about the accident. He also apologized for his "lapse in personal insurance coverage."
In a statement released by Delgadillo's office Tuesday, Michelle Delgadillo, 36, who once was an aide to former City Councilman Joel Wachs, said she was "very embarrassed to find myself in this situation today."
She said she was working to resolve the warrant issue "as quickly as possible."
"I will do whatever the court instructs me to do. I apologize for any embarrassment this has caused my husband and family," she said. "It is completely my mistake."
Delgadillo also released a statement about the bench warrant still pending from his wife's traffic violations, which occurred in Santa Monica.
