KMAX: News of the West

LA Council candidate carried three bags of drugs in 1988 arrest

LOS ANGELES (AP) Court records show an aide to Councilman Nate Holden who is running for City Council was caught at the Ontario International Airport with drug-filled plastic bags stuffed into his pants, as he attempted to fly to New Orleans.

The records appear to contradict Deron Williams' earlier description of the 1988 incident, in which he pleaded guilty to felony cocaine possession and spent 90 days in a rehabilitation center, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Williams, 35, said Thursday, ``I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.'' He said he did not remember the details of the incident.

Williams had said some acquaintances asked him to deliver a package in Ontario and that he wasn't sure what the package contained.

On Friday, Williams admitted that he knew he was carrying cocaine.

He told the Times that some incidents in the police report were untrue, but he did not explain what was incorrect.

``It's been a long time,'' Williams said. ``I've blocked that out of my life, and I'm moving forward and doing the right thing.''

Williams, who is running for the 10th Council District seat, was 20 at the time. He spent three years on probation, according to court and probation documents. Shortly after the conviction, he began working for Holden after the councilman met him in a drugstore parking lot.

Williams said he believed the conviction had been expunged from his record, which is otherwise clean. He said that he told Holden before he was hired that he had been arrested.

In July 1997, Williams successfully petitioned the court to dismiss the charge because he had served his probation and not been charged with any other crimes, according to attorney Earl Williams, who said he represented Williams in the matter.

Holden said that when he hired Williams in late 1988 he viewed the cocaine possession as an isolated incident.

Holden and former Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Par were among those who pledged their support for Williams.

``He's a true success story,'' Parks said. ``He should be held up as an example to young kids in our community who believe that they have done something wrong and can't recover.''

Williams is running against Martin Ludlow, a former state Assembly aide. They were the top two vote-getters among the six candidates in the March 4 election and will face each other in the May 20 runoff.

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