A former California city mayor who received an inflated salary claims he’s innocent. His defense for not knowing the salary was illegal? He can’t read.
Oscar Hernandez, the former mayor of Bell, received an illegal salary of almost $100,000 a year. Did we mention it was a part-time job? He and five other ex-city officials are charged with misappropriating funds amounting to five million dollars and could face up to 20 years behind bars.
Hernandez claims he’s illiterate and simply couldn’t read what was in the contracts. His attorney says he didn’t have a high school or college degree, and never finished elementary school. Dale Walker, a resident of Bell, said on Fox and Friends that he sat in on city council meetings when Hernandez was actually reading.
The ex-mayor’s defense attorney stated, “Many prominent lawyers and accountants were paid to review the laws and salaries of Bell and they never said that either the laws or salaries were illegal. If the experts did not know that the laws and salaries were illegal, how could Mr. Hernandez know?”
Walker responded to that statement, saying, “It’s [Hernandez’s] responsibility as a mayor to ensure that you find out, you need to find out what is and isn’t appropriate. And if it doesn’t seem right, then maybe you need to get new people in because that’s your job.”
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