Full Coverage: L.A. Coliseum scandal
The Times has been reporting on financial irregularities at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, stories that have triggered several criminal and civil inquiries. Three former Coliseum managers, two nationally prominent rave promoters and a stadium contractor have been indicted in the scandal. Commission members | Documents | Arrest photos
- 1
Six years ago, Todd DeStefano was an up-and-coming executive for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the storied stadium built to honor the veterans of World War I that has hosted two Summer Olympics.
- 2
The alleged bribes and kickbacks that prosecutors said flowed like honey between government officials at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and people who did business at the venerable stadium exceeded $2 million — cash that belonged to the taxpayers.
- 3
The pace is rarely slow at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center during weekends.
- 4
The two women who collapsed and died from suspected drug overdoses at the Hard Summer music festival last weekend were among nearly 30 people taken from the Los Angeles County fairgrounds event by ambulance because of serious drug and alcohol intoxication, authorities said.
- 5
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to study a ban on raves at county facilities after two women collapsed from suspected drug overdoses over the weekend at the L.A.
- 6
The suspected overdose deaths of two young women who collapsed at the Hard Summer music festival at the Los Angeles County fairgrounds sparked new debate about whether authorities can do more to reduce drug-related problems at raves.
- 7
A 24-year-old San Francisco man who died while attending the Electric Daisy Carnival rave in Las Vegas had ingested a fatal dose of the drug Ecstasy, authorities said.
- 8
A 24-year-old man from San Francisco died while attending the Electric Daisy Carnival rave in Las Vegas, the coroner said Wednesday.
- 9
A judge on Wednesday pushed back the trial start date in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum corruption case until next year.
- 10
A Los Angeles County judge on Monday rejected defense requests to dismiss charges in the L.A.
- 11
Responding to defense allegations of “outrageous prosecutorial misconduct,” the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has removed the prosecutor who had been spearheading the L.A.
- 12
A 22-year-old man who attended the Beyond Wonderland rave in San Bernardino County died after collapsing at the event, authorities said.
- 13
A California appellate court has reinstated key parts of a government lawsuit that seeks millions of dollars in damages from two rave concert promoters and their companies in connection with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum corruption scandal.
- 14
The Clark County coroner has determined that a man’s death at last month’s Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas was due to an ecstasy overdose.
- 15
A 24-year-old California man who died at the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas last month overdosed on Ecstasy, the party drug linked to other fatalities at the annual festival in recent years, coroner’s officials told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday.
- 16
Toxicology tests will be performed to determine the cause of death of a 24-year-old Bay Area man at an electronic music festival in Las Vegas over the weekend, a coroner’s official said after an autopsy Sunday yielded inconclusive results.
- 17
A 24-year-old California man died Saturday morning at the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, the latest in a series of deaths at the electronic music festival in recent years.
- 18
More than five months after a man fatally overdosed at a San Bernardino County rave, the sponsor of that event, Los Angeles-based rave company Insomniac Inc., said this week it will not hold its annual March rave at the county-owned San Manuel Amphitheater.
- 19
Bernard C. Parks says the governor ignored a letter from him last June asking him to block the lease deal negotiated in secrecy.
- 20
The Coliseum Commission is ordered to pay $415,000 to The Times and a 1st Amendment group for legal costs from winning the release of emails regarding the deal with USC.
- 21
A 22-year-old was the third person since 2006 to die of a drug overdose after attending a concert in the area staged by Insomniac Inc.
- 22
The 22-year-old’s death is the third since 2006 involving Ecstasy at raves staged in San Bernardino County by promoter Insomniac.
- 23
A Times review of coroners’ records found that three people have died after taking Ecstasy and attending San Bernardino County raves staged by Insomniac since 2006.
- 24
SingerLewak will pay $800,000 to the Coliseum commission in exchange for both parties dropping suits over charges that the company failed to detect alleged fraud.
- 25
A judge has ordered the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission to release documents it has withheld from The Times for as long as 20 months.
- 26
Judge says John Sandbrook testified falsely as part of the agency’s efforts to thwart public scrutiny of USC lease negotiations.
- 27
He says the Coliseum Commission apparently violated the state’s Brown Act during deliberations on USC’s lease of the stadium.
- 28
The three defendants still must stand trial on related charges of bribery and conspiracy, an L.A. County Superior Court judge rules.
- 29
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission unsuccessfully sought an emergency court order Friday demanding The Times and others surrender internal emails about its behind-the-scenes efforts to give USC control of the stadium.
- 30
Judge refuses to grant an order demanding the paper surrender emails about commission’s efforts to give USC control of Coliseum.
- 31
A Superior Court judge on Friday denied an emergency motion brought by lawyers for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission seeking to recover documents sent anonymously to a Los Angeles Times reporter.
- 32
Five of eight board members approve the agreement. USC will gain nearly all of the Coliseum’s revenue for the next century.
- 33
A Superior Court judge Friday threw out civil complaints against two concert promoters accused of scheming with a Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum executive to siphon nearly $2 million from the publicly owned stadium.
- 34
USC is poised to take over the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Sports Arena on Monday in anticipation of a 98-year lease of the public venues that has already been negotiated.
- 35
A state board voted Tuesday to approve a sharply debated deal that grants USC control of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and nearly all of the revenues from the taxpayer-owned stadium for the next century.
- 36
A revised lease that allows USC to run the Coliseum would give the university control of museum parking for major Coliseum events, they say.
- 37
In the 98-year lease, USC promises to pay for renovations and give the government a portion of its net gain. But the profit is not guaranteed.
- 38
A trustee of the California Science Center’s fund-raising arm denounced as a “robbery” Wednesday a revised proposal that would give USC control of the museum’s parking as part of a deal that allows the university to run the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
- 39
Government overseers entered into a secrecy agreement requested by USC on negotiations to surrender control of the venue to the university, stadium general manager testifies.
- 40
A vote is delayed on giving control to USC, a move that institutions say would cut attendance and divert millions in parking revenue.
- 41
The California Science Center board of directors put off a vote Wednesday that could have surrendered museum parking to USC in a deal to give the keys of the L.A.
- 42
The top administrator of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum testified Tuesday that he could not recall key details of how he responded to document requests under the state’s open-records law, including the search for a missing email from a former stadium manager indicted in a corruption scandal.
- 43
A trustee of the California Science Center foundation says loss of parking revenue would cut deeply into museum educational programs.
- 44
A trustee of the California Science Center’s fundraising arm says his organization is considering legal action to block a deal that would give control of the museum’s parking to USC.
- 45
Under the Coliseum lease deal, USC gets the historic stadium’s lucrative assets. But taxpayers receive few benefits.
- 46
Supporters of three public museums in Exposition Park say the institutions could be permanently harmed by provisions in a proposed lease that would turn over to USC control of the neighboring Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a chunk of state parking and the revenues they produce.
- 47
Opposition is mounting to a plan to take money-making parking spaces away from the California Science Center and give them to USC as part of a deal to have the private school operate the taxpayer-owned Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
- 48
A rave produced by Los Angeles-based Insomniac Inc. is coming under scrutiny this summer after authorities reported that 30 attendees were taken to hospitals in the Chicago area.
- 49
The last day of a large rave in New York City was canceled Sunday after two attendees died, apparently from Ecstasy overdoses.
- 50
A proposal to guarantee USC most of the parking spaces in a state-owned garage during Trojan football games and other events could hurt the neighboring California Science Center by driving down attendance, some supporters of the Exposition Park museum say.
- 51
A judge rules that the newspaper could not be stopped from reporting on testimony from the top manager of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in a deposition for an open-government lawsuit.
- 52
The reports confirm financial irregularities, an official’s use of a personal Visa card to gain travel points and questionable reimbursements.
- 53
John Sandbrook objects to the presence of two L.A. Times reporters during a deposition in an open-government lawsuit filed by The Times and a 1st Amendment group.
- 54
Steve Soboroff says a deal that would give the university control of parking lots used by Exposition Park museums could be ‘the end of the museums.’
- 55
The shift of Beyond Wonderland brings criticism from new venue’s neighbors. Insomniac Inc. denies allegations that it’s moving because of poor relations with San Bernardino.
- 56
Struggling local governments welcome large music events staged by L.A.-based promoters, but reports reveal a tragic pattern of drug overdoses.
- 57
The stadium is in deep financial difficulty, having lost $10.6 million in the last three years. Officials said that they may not have enough money to pay employees by the end of March.
- 58
All nine black caucus members favor having USC manage the Coliseum but object to the inclusion of nearby parking lots they say should be turned into parks.
- 59
The L.A. County supervisor used his position on a Coliseum panel to score a pair of hard-to-get tickets to the 2004 game in Houston. Whether he paid for them, why he obtained them and who provided them is in question.
- 60
The California Fair Political Practices Commission had been checking a tip that John Sandbrook violated a conflict-of-interest law.
- 61
The grim forecast comes as the Coliseum Commission is sued over alleged violations of public meetings law
- 62
Former Coliseum contractor Tony Estrada, who has been charged with embezzlement and conspiracy, says he told his superiors about wrongdoing for years but nothing was done.
- 63
David Israel says he quit because his work on a deal to grant USC control of the nearly bankrupt stadium was complete.
- 64
Sasha Rodriguez’s family will receive a $190,000 settlement on behalf of the stadium, the rave promoter and an ex-Coliseum manager.
- 65
The permit did not describe the movie as pornographic; the stadium’s governing panel did not approve the production. Group sex was shot on the field.
- 66
It’s unclear how the filmmaker got access to the taxpayer-owned stadium or permission to use its field lights.
- 67
The taxpayer-owned venue is in financial ruins, but four commissioners kept a private, catered area at the Sports Arena from public sale, so they had prime views of Bruce Springsteen singing about blue-collar struggles.
- 68
Commission, in an 8-1 vote, approves a controversial plan to transfer control of the L.A. stadium to USC.
- 69
The city councilman also urges the D.A.s office to investigate the stadium general manager for possible conflict of interest in seeking a job with USC while negotiating lease.
- 70
California’s Fair Political Practices Commission is trying to determine whether John Sandbrook illegally sought a job with USC while negotiating a turnover of control of the stadium to the university.
- 71
Officials seek more time to ensure that the proposal is the most beneficial to taxpayers. The action comes as the Coliseum Commission announces losses of more than $7 million since 2009.
- 72
Ronald Lederkramer, the facility’s former finance director, answers questions only after a judge grants him limited immunity, transcripts of the proceedings show.
- 73
Among names of note to pop up on sales that have finally slowpoked their way into the public record is Todd DeStefano, who has sold his Pasadena house for $1.92 million.
- 74
The Coliseum would surrender public control of the historic stadium to the university, according to the proposed 42-year lease.
- 75
A city audit of the stadium finds routine squandering of public funds in a setting ‘void of essential formal policies, procedures and protocols.’ Two Coliseum commission officials acknowledge ‘insufficient oversight’ but contend there is ‘plenty of blame to go around.’
- 76
The commission also continues to keep the lease plan under wraps. A Coliseum official declines to tell the stadium’s landlord why the turnover is in the works.
- 77
The university would fund renovations and take over staffing, day-to-day operations and event scheduling. Commissioners would have a limited oversight role and get free tickets to USC games.
- 78
Tony Estrada, a former Coliseum janitorial contractor who portrays himself as a whistle-blower done wrong, says he will not return to face charges of embezzlement and conspiracy in an alleged kickback scheme.
- 79
Leopold Caudillo Jr. is accused of directing more than $20,000 in stadium business to a firm he controlled. He could get three years if convicted.
- 80
Patrick T. Lynch must repay $385,000 he allegedly received in a kickback scheme, but nine other counts are dropped. A legal observer questions the deal, but the prosecutor touts the restitution.
- 81
Tony Estrada, a longtime janitorial contractor at the historic stadium, is accused of making $385,000 in illegal payments to a former Coliseum general manager.
- 82
Among those indicted in the corruption investigation are rave promoters and three ex-stadium managers.
- 83
Former longtime General Manager Patrick Lynch and former Events Manager Todd DeStefano, along with Go Ventures chief executive Reza Gerami, are arrested in connection with a corruption scandal at one of the nation’s most storied stadiums.
- 84
The panel convenes privately for 2 1/2 hours, devoting part of the time to ongoing efforts to surrender control of the stadium to USC, and spends only 12 minutes in open session.
- 85
California law allows closed meetings over finances, but much of the plan to turn the stadium over to USC involves other issues. That will leave any final deal open to legal challenges, an expert says.
- 86
Executives use sick-day stash accumulated over up to 35 years to boost their public pension benefits and to receive lump-sum payments worth thousands.
- 87
First, a state panel criticized its plan to cede control to USC; then, commissioners realized they were in violation of the open meeting law.
- 88
Bundles of cash were used to pay wages of IATSE members for concerts and other productions, with no controls on disbursement. The U.S. Labor Department is investigating.
- 89
No details are provided about the departure of Ronald Lederkramer, who billed the Coliseum for luxury car costs, his personal auto insurance and snoring treatments, according to records and interviews.
- 90
Lawsuit against former managers to include allegations that union rep was given money for stagehands’ wages.
- 91
As stadium’s finances nose-dived, commissioners took little notice
- 92
Coliseum Commission President David Israel has instructed lawyers to resolve all deal points with the university and to prepare a lease that can be voted on early next year. The school would then upgrade the stadium.
- 93
Ronald Lederkramer could have bought new sound equipment for the Coliseum by issuing a check from the taxpayer-owned stadium. Instead, he put the package of high-powered loudspeakers on his personal Chase Visa card, according to records and interviews.
- 94
L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas used his position to get $560 worth of Carolina Panthers’ tickets at the public’s expense. Neither Ridley-Thomas nor the commission reported the gift in financial disclosures.
- 95
L.A. County district attorney investigators seize computers and documents from Go Ventures Inc. in West Hills and the Malibu residence of its chief executive, Reza Gerami. They’ve been examining the company’s payments to firms run by a former Coliseum official.
- 96
The suit accuses music promoters Insomniac Inc. and Go Ventures Inc., along with former general manager Patrick Lynch and ex-events manager Todd DeStefano, of depriving the commission and its nonprofit concessions arm of concert revenue.
- 97
Leopold Caudillo Jr. and David Shea are no longer working at the facility after revelations of payments to a firm founded by the two men.
- 98
While serving as general manager, Patrick Lynch received the money from Tony Estrada, who deposited it at a Miami bank. Lynch’s attorney says the funds had nothing to do with stadium operations.
- 99
The proposal by Supervisors Ridley-Thomas and Knabe to examine the books of the troubled facility would have to be approved and paid for by the Coliseum Commission.
- 100
Rick Caruso, a potential L.A. mayoral candidate, often clashed with fellow members of the scandal-plagued commission. Some took issue with his dual role as a trustee for USC, whose football team is the Coliseum’s main tenant.
- 101
Ronald Lederkramer, Los Angeles Coliseum finance director, has submitted $7,600 in fuel bills since 2008. Other officials have racked up similar bills, though their jobs required only occasional car trips, typically to nearby destinations.
- 102
L.A. City Controller Wendy Greuel’s audit of the Coliseum’s books comes on top of a criminal investigation by Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley.
- 103
Coliseum emails show that Ronald Lederkramer, the No. 2 administrator for the stadium’s governing commission, has been granted a medical leave for at least six weeks and Technology Manager Leopold Caudillo Jr. is on paid administrative leave.
- 104
Also named in the lawsuit are the event company Insomniac and former Coliseum events manager Todd DeStefano, who also worked for Insomniac. The victim died of an Ecstasy overdose in 2010.
- 105
The new lease would give the university greater control over the stadium. USC has long sought a master lease in exchange for funding improvements to the aging stadium.
- 106
The councilman and Coliseum commissioner also calls for the firing of the technology manager, who a Times report said directed stadium business to a firm he founded.
- 107
Technology manager Leopold Caudillo Jr. founded a firm that earned $30,000 from the facility, records show. Caudillo denies he currently has a role in the company, although state documents list him as manager.
- 108
USC could block moves to have the new team play at the Coliseum while the stadium is being built.
- 109
In canceling the screenings of ‘Electric Daisy Carnival Experience,’ Regal and AMC theaters cite ‘the incident in Los Angeles’ in which some fans threw rocks and bottles and damaged three police cruisers.
- 110
The head of the facility’s governing commission says he rescinded Ronald Lederkramer’s $25,000 pay increase after L.A. City Controller Wendy Greuel raised questions. Greuel is expected to launch a probe into the commission’s finances.
- 111
The public agency not only has paid for luxury cars but also picked up costs for registration, service and personal auto insurance, according to public records.
- 112
Todd DeStefano’s income began growing about the time the Coliseum and Sports Arena slipped into the red, records show.
- 113
The Coliseum Commission can’t keep its promise to USC to make $60 million in renovations at the aging stadium. The university has several options under its contract.
- 114
Computers, documents and other material are taken from residences of former General Manager Patrick Lynch and former events manager Todd DeStefano.
- 115
Todd DeStefano got tens of thousands in payments from firms that used the facility and Sports Arena.
- 116
The president of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission acknowledged Tuesday that the commission failed to closely monitor its managers, a statement that comes several months after The Times disclosed that a commission events manager was also employed by a rave company that held events there.
- 117
The 2011 rave was moved to Las Vegas; a girl died after last summer’s event.
- 118
The alleged violations occurred last year during the Electric Daisy Carnival. The neighboring Sports Arena faces a separate accusation over its alcohol license.
- 119
Commission also hires an interim general manager to help find a successor to Patrick Lynch, who quit amid questions over a subordinate’s job with a rave promoter.
- 120
The Electric Daisy Carnival has been ‘postponed,’ its producer says. The two-day event was caught up in a conflict-of-interest scandal even as it faced criticism that it bred drug abuse.
- 121
The Coliseum Commission accepts Patrick Lynch’s resignation. Lynch had authorized his deputy to double as a paid consultant to the producer of last year’s Electric Daisy Carnival.
- 122
Patrick Lynch could find his job in jeopardy due to revelations that he allowed a top aide to work as a paid consultant to a rave promoter even as he was overseeing the Coliseum’s security for the event.
- 123
In addition to being an administrator for the Coliseum Commission and a consultant to the producer of the Electric Daisy Carnival rave, Todd DeStefano hired a lobbyist to persuade the City Council to allow the controversial events to continue.
- 124
Commission president no longer backs return of Electric Daisy Carnival after Coliseum’s events manager is revealed to be working for the rave promoter. Prosecutors and state ethics agency are investigating.
- 125
The administrator who helped plan security also worked for the producer of the Electric Daisy Carnival.
- 126
The educator cites the dangers of the illegal drug Ecstasy, which is commonly associated with the electronic music dance parties.
- 127
The parents of Sasha Rodriguez, 15, accuse L.A. Memorial Coliseum management of failing to ensure safe conditions at last summer’s two-day Electric Daisy Carnival. The girl died of a drug overdose after collapsing at the rave.
- 128
New safety measures were in place at the annual New Year’s Eve event at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.
- 129
The bill would also bar the events on private property unless a business owner had a license to host such an event. The sponsor cites drug-related deaths.
- 130
Rather than reinstate a ban on raves, the panel requires 60 days’ notice for approval of an event and pledges safeguards to protect participants.
- 131
Two commissioners say there was no advance notice that such a decision would be made. The panel’s vice president says raves will occur somewhere, and he doesn’t want them to return to back alleys and warehouses.
- 132
Commission member Rick Caruso, who missed the meeting, criticizes the board for withdrawing the ban, which was adopted after a teenager who attended a rave died of an overdose.
- 133
Sixteen people were hospitalized and 40 were arrested at a Halloween-themed rave at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, authorities said Sunday.
- 134
The ingestion of the drug caused Sasha Rodriguez, 15, to lose oxygen to her brain, leading to her death, a doctor says
- 135
A rave at the Los Angeles Sports Arena resulted in 80 arrests and 16 medical calls, according to city police and fire officials.
- 136
Minors will be banned and an onsite team of emergency room doctors required. No new such events will be allowed at the stadium or the Sports Arena in the near future.
- 137
A decision to keep a moratorium on new rave contracts, which was imposed after a suspected drug overdose death at the Electric Daisy Carnival, could be costly to the L.A. Coliseum and Sports Arena.
- 138
Officials, doctors and participants acknowledge that Ecstasy use is increasing and particularly widespread during events such as raves.
- 139
The suspected drug overdose death of a 15-year-old girl, Sasha Rodriguez, after a weekend rave causes Coliseum officials to call for a moratorium on raves.
- 140
Officials suspect that the teen, identified as Sasha Rodriguez, died of a drug overdose after attending the Electric Daisy Carnival. Her death renews calls to ban such events from the Coliseum.
- 141
Drug overdoses and injuries send scores of teens and young adults to hospitals after the weekend’s Electric Daisy Carnival.
- 142
The man who died also used heroin after going home, a CDC report says. The document and a rave at the Cow Palace near San Francisco raise questions about holding such events at publicly owned venues.
