Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
October 9, 2002
LOS ANGELES -- The head of a law enforcement group backing Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon released two photos Tuesday that he said show Democratic Gov. Gray Davis illegally accepting a $10,000 campaign contribution in the state Capitol.
Monty Holden, executive director of the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs, said the 1998 photos were taken in the office of the lieutenant governor, Davis' post at the time.
California law makes it a crime to receive contributions in state office buildings.
Davis strategist Garry South dismissed the photos as "bogus" and said the office shown was not the lieutenant governor's office.
"There's nothing in this office that was in the lieutenant governor's office," he said. "Not the artwork, not the doors, not even the carpet. Bogus."
The photos show Davis accepting a check from Al Angele, then executive director of COPS. Davis was running for his first term.
Davis said the meeting took place in his campaign office in Los Angeles, which would not be illegal.
Angele said the charge by current members of COPS -- a group that once supported Davis -- is "totally unbelievable."
"I've never been in (Davis') office in my life," said Angele, now a Davis appointee to the Board of Prison Terms. "I don't understand it. It's out of left field."