Ex-Lynwood Mayor Awaiting Federal Trial Is Held on Prostitution Charge

Former Lynwood Mayor Paul Richards, who is scheduled to go on trial next week on federal corruption charges, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute.

Richards, 49, was taken into custody by vice officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southeast Division shortly before noon and booked on a misdemeanor prostitution charge. He was being held on $2,000 bond.

His attorney in the federal case, Edward Robinson, was out of the state and could not be reached, his office said.

Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, had no comment on the arrest.

Richards had been free on $100,000 bond in the federal case. One condition is that he not violate any federal, state or local criminal law.

Any decision to revoke his bond would rest with U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner, who will preside over the corruption trial.

Richards, a lawyer, served on the Lynwood City Council for 17 years until he was ousted in a recall election in 2003. He was indicted by a federal grand jury last year on charges of steering a series of lucrative city contracts to a company he secretly owned.

Also facing trial are his sister, Paula Cameo Harris, 56, of Altadena, who is accused of serving as her brother’s front in the shell company, and Bevan Thomas, 56, of Anaheim, a friend who allegedly bribed Richards in return for city contracts.