California State Sen. Roderick Wright Resigns From Senate After Sentencing For Perjury
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — State Sen. Roderick Wright has resigned from his position, according to California Senate leadership.
A spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg confirmed to CBS13 that the state senator who was sentenced in a voter fraud case last week as stepped down.
Wright was sentenced on Friday to 90 days in Los Angeles County jail for lying about his legal residence. He was convicted of perjury in January of lying about his residence in the first of three unrelated cases against state lawmakers that cast a shadow over the Legislature.
Wright's sentence ended up being nearly three times as long as the wait for the sentencing it was delayed a couple of times.
Wright is one of four Democratic state senators facing legal trouble. State Sen. Leland Yee is facing charges in a weapons trafficking case, State Sen. Ron Calderon is accused of accepting compensation to get legislation passed, and State Sen. Ben Hueso was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.
Currently, the three senators who remain in office are still being paid. Two of the three senators still facing legal troubles have been officially suspended, but are still being paid because of a legal opinion from the state's Legislative Counsel Bureau. That opinion states the legislature can't take action on their salaries, because of a constitutional amendment passed in 1990. The body created by that amendment, however, can only change benefits across the board in the California legislature, not on an individual basis.
An amendment to the California Constitution to correct this was approved by the legislature, but it won't appear on the ballot for voters for more than two years after legislators missed the deadline.
