{"id":30649,"date":"2025-10-30T19:33:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T19:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/30649\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T19:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T19:33:08","slug":"coachella-mayor-pleads-not-guilty-to-felony-misdemeanor-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/30649\/","title":{"rendered":"Coachella mayor pleads not guilty to felony, misdemeanor charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Courts\"<\/a>A gavel. (File photo courtesy UC Berkeley Law)<\/p>\n

\u00a0Coachella Mayor Steven Andrew Hernandez pleaded not guilty to nearly a dozen felony and misdemeanor charges Thursday on which he was indicted for alleged illicit acts connected to his decisions on development projects in the city.<\/p>\n

Hernandez, 42, is charged with four counts each of conflict of interest in government business and perjury, as well as one count of conflict of interest in a public sector contract.<\/p>\n

The charges were revealed after a Riverside County Grand Jury<\/a> indictment was unsealed during the defendant\u2019s arraignment Thursday before Superior Court Judge Dean Benjamini, who scheduled a trial-setting conference for Feb. 23 at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.<\/p>\n

The mayor is free on a $112,500 bond.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conflict-of-interest charges relate to Hernandez\u2019s vote to approve a contract between \u2026 Coachella and the Coachella Valley Association of Governments\u2019 `Housing First Program,\u2019 as well as his votes and advocacy related to downtown Coachella development programs,\u201d a District Attorney\u2019s Office statement said Thursday. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe perjury charges relate to claims made by Hernandez on his \u2018Statement of Economic Interests\u2019 public disclosure forms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those documents fall under the designation \u201cForm 700\u201d by the California Fair Political Practices Commission, which says they\u2019re necessary for the public to know \u201cabout an official\u2019s personal financial interests, to ensure that officials are making decisions in the best interest of the public and not enhancing their personal finances.\u201d<\/p>\n

The direct monetary or other potential benefits Hernandez reaped from his alleged fraudulent activity was not disclosed by prosecutors.<\/p>\n

The D.A.\u2019s office said a conviction on all or some of the charges would mean a prohibition from ever holding any public office statewide in the future, as well as a possible seven-year prison sentence, though given the mayor\u2019s lack of prior criminal history, he\u2019d likely only face a term of probation.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, county Board of Supervisors Chairman Manuel Perez confirmed that Hernandez, who is the chair\u2019s chief of staff, had been placed on \u201cindefinite\u201d leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe allegations against Steven Hernandez are serious,\u201d Perez said. \u201cHe has been placed on indefinite administrative leave from the county. Although we are still waiting on more details, it\u2019s our understanding that the charges are unrelated to his role in our office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hernandez was arrested Tuesday by D.A.\u2019s office investigators and booked into the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside. He posted bond hours later and was released.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city is aware of allegations made regarding Coachella Mayor Steven A. Hernandez, and the city\u2019s administration is fully cooperating with authorities,\u201d a municipal statement said Tuesday. \u201cThere is no additional information available to share at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was unclear whether the mayor intended to continue on in his elective position, or might step aside while his case is adjudicated.<\/p>\n

Hernandez was first elected mayor in 2014 and has been Perez\u2019s right hand man for nearly as much time.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A gavel. (File photo courtesy UC Berkeley Law) \u00a0Coachella Mayor Steven Andrew Hernandez pleaded not guilty to nearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[21495,22564,22565,22566,612,74,76,75,22567],"class_list":{"0":"post-30649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-coachella","9":"tag-coachella-mayor","10":"tag-coachella-mayor-steven-hernandez","11":"tag-mayor-arrested","12":"tag-riverside-county","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-headlines","15":"tag-san-diego-news","16":"tag-steven-andrew-hernandez"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30649","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=30649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}