Local News in Brief : Ex-Mayor Loses Appeal

Former West Hollywood Mayor Valerie Terrigno lost an appeal Tuesday of her embezzlement conviction and a five-year court ban on selling her story.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco voted 3 to 0 to uphold Terrigno’s conviction and sentence for embezzling federal funds in 1983 and 1984 as executive director of Crossroads Foundation, which gave counseling and emergency aid to people looking for work.

Terrigno was elected to the City Council and became the first mayor of West Hollywood when the community of 33,000 was incorporated in 1984. Believed to be the nation’s first openly homosexual mayor, she remained on the West Hollywood council until she was sentenced in April, 1986.

She was sentenced to 60 days in a halfway house and 1,000 hours of community service, ordered to repay $6,800, placed on probation for five years and prohibited from accepting money for speaking or writing about her case for that same period.

The appeals court rejected defense arguments that the restriction violated Terrigno’s right of free speech.