A former high-level lawyer in Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer’s office has agreed to plead guilty in the federal corruption probe of the Department of Water and Power billing debacle, becoming the first staffer under Feuer to do so.
Thomas Peters, 55, of Pacific Palisades, agreed to plead guilty to one count of aiding and abetting extortion. The crime carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.
Peters, who worked as chief of the civil litigation branch, joined Feuer’s office in 2014 and handled the bulk of claims or lawsuits filed against or brought by the city.
Peters has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge for threatening to fire a plaintiffs’ attorney from a special counsel position with the city unless the attorney paid a “substantial extortion demand” from a former employee who was threatening to expose the city’s collusive litigation over the DWP billing mess, prosecutors said.
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