After hearing four weeks of testimony, the jury in the trial of former Bell City Assistant Manager Angela Spaccia has finally begun deliberations to reach a verdict. Gordon Tokumatsu reports from Downtown Los Angeles for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 22, 2013.
Prosecutors are challenging claims made by attorneys for Bell's former assistant city administrator as her trial on 13 corruption-related felony charges draws to a close.
An attorney for Angela Spaccia, second in command at the time of the corruption scandal in the community southeast of downtown Los Angeles, told jurors Thursday that she was paid too much -- but she wasn't involved in criminal conduct.
"The evidence is only that she was overpaid," said defense attorney Harland Braun. "She never thought anything was illegal."
Read: Six-Figure Salaries in Bell
The prosecution is expected to give its rebuttal argument Friday morning in Los Angeles Superior Court. Prosecutors called the salaries and retirement package figures in Bell "ridiculous sums of money."
Spaccia, 55, is charged with six counts of misappropriation of public funds, four counts of conflict of interest, two counts of secretion of official records and one count of conspiracy to commit misappropriation of public funds.
Former Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo -- who was charged along with Spaccia -- pleaded no contest Oct. 3 to 69 felony counts, including misappropriation of public funds, less than a week before their trial was set to begin. He was not called to the stand during Spaccia's trial.
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