{"id":317359,"date":"2026-05-15T15:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/317359\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T15:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:28:11","slug":"flo-cofer-files-state-bar-complaint-against-sacramento-lawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/317359\/","title":{"rendered":"Flo Cofer files State Bar complaint against Sacramento lawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SAC_274_20241001_LS_Cofer.JPG\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" title=\"Flo Cofer puts up a yard during her 2024 campaign for mayor of Sacramento. Cofer in 2026 is running for the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. She filed a complaint with the State Bar of California alleging an attorney made false statements about her.\" alt=\"Flo Cofer puts up a yard during her 2024 campaign for mayor of Sacramento. Cofer in 2026 is running for the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. She filed a complaint with the State Bar of California alleging an attorney made false statements about her.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Flo Cofer puts up a yard during her 2024 campaign for mayor of Sacramento. Cofer in 2026 is running for the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. She filed a complaint with the State Bar of California alleging an attorney made false statements about her.<\/p>\n<p>                Lezlie Sterling<\/p>\n<p>            Sacramento Bee file<\/p>\n<p>Sacramento County Board of Supervisors candidate Flojaune Cofer filed a complaint with the State Bar of California alleging that a Sacramento attorney made false statements about her in a complaint to state election officials in her 1st District campaign.<\/p>\n<p>On April 25, Sacramento attorney Brian T. Hildreth<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/local\/article315725561.html\"> submitted a complaint<\/a> to the Fair Political Practices Commission on behalf of resident Richard Dwyer alleging that Cofer underreported her income on a required disclosure form ahead of next month\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n<p>Hildreth, who did not respond to requests for comment, also represented Dwyer in a successful Sacramento Superior Court lawsuit that blocked Cofer, an epidemiologist, from using the title \u201cdoctor\u201d on the June 2 ballot.<\/p>\n<p>In his complaint to the FPPC, Hildreth cited a document Cofer submitted in the ballot designation case.<\/p>\n<p>In a declaration filed March 27, Cofer listed several professional activities she said supported her use of the title \u201cdoctor\u201d on the ballot.<\/p>\n<p>For some activities, Cofer said she was paid. For others, she did not indicate whether she received compensation.<\/p>\n<p>In his complaint, Hildreth listed several activities he said generated income for Cofer, including two guest lectures at Sacramento State, policy work for the California Department of Social Services and expert witness work in a Sacramento Homeless Union lawsuit against the city.<\/p>\n<p>He cited Cofer\u2019s court declaration as the source of that information. However, the declaration did not state that she was paid for those activities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis complaint is part of a broader pattern of abusing oversight and ethics processes for political theater,\u201d Cofer said Thursday. \u201cI filed a complaint with the State Bar against attorney Brian Hildreth because attorneys have an ethical obligation not to make false statements on behalf of clients. An experienced elections attorney knows Form 700 disclosures are governed by specific legal standards \u2014 not a requirement to list every dollar a person has ever received \u2014 yet this complaint repeatedly misstates my declaration, references income outside the filing period, and even claims court findings that do not exist. If we want fair elections, we cannot normalize dishonest and unethical conduct as a political strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>FPPC rules require candidates and elected officials to disclose certain income, gifts and real estate interests, but not all assets or earnings. For example, candidates do not have to report the value of their primary residence, but they must disclose rental properties. The forms are intended to alert the public to potential conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n<p>Cofer\u2019s complaint also noted that Hildreth works for Bell, McAndrews &amp; Hiltachk, the same law firm according to campaign filings that has been paid by a political action committee supporting her opponent, Sacramento City Councilmember Eric Guerra.<\/p>\n<p>Ashlee N. Titus, the committee\u2019s primary contact, said the PAC was not paying the firm for any work related to Cofer.<\/p>\n<p>Hildreth did not answer questions about who was paying his legal fees.<\/p>\n<p>The FPPC was still reviewing Hildreth\u2019s complaint, according to a spokesperson. A State Bar spokesperson declined to say whether the agency was investigating Cofer\u2019s complaint. If the Bar determines Hildreth\u2019s actions warrant discipline, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.calbar.ca.gov\/legal-professionals\/maintaining-compliance\/administrative-compliance\/attorney-discipline?field_county_target_id=358&amp;node_id=5159\">that information will be disclosed to the public.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It was unclear whether either the FPPC, an independent state agency, or the Bar, a division of the state\u2019s court system, would resolve the complaints before the June 2 election.<\/p>\n<p>        Related Stories from  Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/221348765\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Clift_Theresa.JPG\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Profile Image of Theresa Clift\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/221348765\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Theresa Clift<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n<p>            Theresa Clift is the Regional Watchdog Reporter for The Sacramento Bee. She covered Sacramento City Hall for The Bee from 2018 through 2024. Before joining The Bee, she worked for newspapers in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. She grew up in Michigan and graduated with a journalism degree from Central Michigan University.\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flo Cofer puts up a yard during her 2024 campaign for mayor of Sacramento. Cofer in 2026 is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-317359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317359","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=317359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}