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In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors.
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LA Council candidate carried three bags of drugs in 1988 arrest
Saturday April 12, 2003
LOS ANGELES (AP) Court records show an aide to Councilman Nate
Holden who is running for City Council was caught at the Ontario
International Airport with drug-filled plastic bags stuffed into
his pants, as he attempted to fly to New Orleans.
The records appear to contradict Deron Williams' earlier
description of the 1988 incident, in which he pleaded guilty to
felony cocaine possession and spent 90 days in a rehabilitation
center, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Williams, 35, said Thursday, ``I was in the wrong place at the
wrong time.'' He said he did not remember the details of the
incident.
Williams had said some acquaintances asked him to deliver a
package in Ontario and that he wasn't sure what the package
contained.
On Friday, Williams admitted that he knew he was carrying
cocaine.
He told the Times that some incidents in the police report were
untrue, but he did not explain what was incorrect.
``It's been a long time,'' Williams said. ``I've blocked that
out of my life, and I'm moving forward and doing the right thing.''
Williams, who is running for the 10th Council District seat, was
20 at the time. He spent three years on probation, according to
court and probation documents. Shortly after the conviction, he
began working for Holden after the councilman met him in a
drugstore parking lot.
Williams said he believed the conviction had been expunged from
his record, which is otherwise clean. He said that he told Holden
before he was hired that he had been arrested.
In July 1997, Williams successfully petitioned the court to
dismiss the charge because he had served his probation and not been
charged with any other crimes, according to attorney Earl Williams,
who said he represented Williams in the matter.
Holden said that when he hired Williams in late 1988 he viewed
the cocaine possession as an isolated incident.
Holden and former Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Par were
among those who pledged their support for Williams.
``He's a true success story,'' Parks said. ``He should be held
up as an example to young kids in our community who believe that
they have done something wrong and can't recover.''
Williams is running against Martin Ludlow, a former state
Assembly aide. They were the top two vote-getters among the six
candidates in the March 4 election and will face each other in the
May 20 runoff.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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