Riverside County Won’t Prosecute Corona Officials

Riverside County prosecutors on Friday announced that no charges would be filed against two Corona city councilmen accused of having a conflict of interest for starting an energy consulting firm while the city was trying to take over some Southern California Edison facilities.

“There is insufficient evidence of a criminal conflict of interest to warrant the filing of criminal charges at this time,” said district attorney’s office spokeswoman Ingrid Wyatt.

The matter will be forwarded to the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission for review, she added.

Earlier this month, Corona police forwarded a lengthy report to prosecutors about their investigation of Municipal Energy Solutions, the now-defunct consulting firm created in 2002 by Darrell Talbert and Jeff Miller. The councilmen’s firm offered to help cities create municipal utilities, but it never landed a contract.

Some residents and a councilman have alleged that the officials had an interest in the takeover bid and should not have participated in council decisions and votes. The unsuccessful effort cost the city more than $3 million.

Miller and Talbert said they feel vindicated.

“I am not a flashy person. I don’t own planes and I only own one home,” Miller said. “You can lose those things in one bang of a gavel. That is why this whole episode has been so frustrating.”

They say the probe was politically motivated and was prompted by Councilman Jeffrey Bennett, a vocal critic of theirs.

Talbert said Bennett was trying to shift attention from his own problems. Miller and Bennett are up for reelection in November.

“This decision ultimately illustrates Mr. Bennett’s desire to politically harm Mr. Miller and myself and his agenda of covering up his current bankruptcy problems and personal issues that are publicly very painful for him,” Talbert said.

Bennett denied their charges.

“What Mr. Miller and Mr. Talbert do outside of the city in their own personal lives doesn’t affect me one bit. When it affects the city, I have to look at it,” he said. “There’s no grand cabal or grand scheme to do Miller in or anyone else.”