{"id":22330,"date":"2025-10-25T01:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T01:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/22330\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T01:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T01:38:09","slug":"poway-councilman-facing-recall-election-charged-with-bribery-perjury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/22330\/","title":{"rendered":"Poway councilman facing recall election charged with bribery, perjury"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Portrait<\/a>Tony Blain. (Photo courtesy of city of Poway)<\/p>\n

Prosecutors filed multiple felony charges Friday against a Poway city councilman, two of them connected to key city votes.<\/p>\n

Councilman Tony Blain<\/a>, who already is facing recall in the city\u2019s Nov. 4 special election<\/a>, is charged with two counts of bribery, in addition to perjury and destruction or removal of a public record, according to a criminal complaint filed by the San Diego County District Attorney\u2019s Office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The bribery counts against Blain, identified in the filing under his full name, Arthur Anthony Blain IV, pertain to allegations of vote trading to determine city council roles.<\/p>\n

In the complaint, prosecutors accuse Blain of agreeing to vote in favor of appointing Councilmember Peter De Hoff as deputy mayor in exchange for \u201cDe Hoff\u2019s vote in favor of holding a special election, rather than making an appointment, to fill a council seat vacancy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blain is charged both with soliciting a bribe in general and from a member of a legislative body of a city.<\/p>\n

He also is accused of perjuring himself on Sept. 24, 2024, in a sworn complaint to the state\u2019s Fair Political Practices Commission. Prosecutors contend he \u201cfalsely represented in said sworn complaint that he was a current city councilman in the City of Poway prior to having been elected to that position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blain was elected to represent Poway\u2019s District 2 in the November 2024 general election.<\/p>\n

He also, prosecutors contend, sometime between Dec. 7, 2024 and the middle of last month, \u201cknowingly destroyed communications relating to city business that were subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act and took affirmative steps to evade compliance with that Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fifth charge, petty theft, is a misdemeanor count related to the alleged theft of a campaign sign.<\/p>\n

Mayor Steve Vaus said he was \u201cnot at all surprised\u201d by the charges against Blain, some of which stem from the aftermath of former Councilman Brian Pepin\u2019s resignation. Councilman Christopher Pikus was ultimately appointed to the seat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are very serious charges, and while it\u2019s a difficult moment for the city, our commitment to integrity and transparency won\u2019t waver,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Blain did not return a call seeking comment; the District Attorney\u2019s Office also did not respond to a query regarding the case.<\/p>\n

In January, Blain said<\/a> in a statement that accusations regarding emails allegedly sent to De Huff were part of an effort \u201cto defame an extremely popular newly elected councilmember.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voters in Poway sought Blain\u2019s removal from office, a campaign that resulted in Blain\u2019s council colleagues voting 4-0 in August to call a special election. Vaus said District 2 voters shouldn\u2019t let the criminal charges dissuade them from casting their ballots. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe recall really is more important than ever,\u201d Vaus said.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tony Blain. (Photo courtesy of city of Poway) Prosecutors filed multiple felony charges Friday against a Poway city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[17802,17803,6756,8849,74,7678,76,75,17804,12644],"class_list":["post-22330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-bribery","tag-perjury","tag-poway","tag-recall","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county-district-attorneys-office","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-steve-vaus","tag-tony-blain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}