A company that purchased a cannabis license connected to a bribery scheme set up by Baldwin Park officials has won a $1.9 million verdict against the city, its former city attorney, a City Council member and a former councilmember.

Following a five-day trial in the civil case, a jury determined that former City Attorney Robert Tafoya, Councilmember Manny Lozano and former Councilmember Ricardo Pacheco committed fraud and are personally liable for $1.6 million of the total. Compton Councilman Isaac Galvan, who served as an intermediary in the sale of the license, failed to appear and a judge entered a default judgment against him, records showed.

The city of Baldwin Park is on the hook for an additional $290,000 for “negligence,” according to the jury’s verdict.

Attorney David Torres-Siegrist, who filed the federal lawsuit on behalf of DJCBP Corp., said the city’s agreement with DJCBP is the first of several agreements he hopes to unravel as a result of the corruption discovered by federal investigators during Baldwin Park’s initial rollout of cannabis licenses in 2018.

“This ruling not only provides justice for my client but also voids a key contract tied to the City’s cannabis licensing program, opening the door for other owner-operators to challenge similarly tainted agreements,” Torres-Siegrist said. “This case is among the first in California to expose and penalize municipal corruption in the commercial cannabis industry, setting a precedent for accountability across the state for local jurisdictions.”

Torres-Siegrist represents five other clients challenging their agreements with the city as well.

“Robert (Tafoya) intentionally along with Pacheco and the rest of these goons set this thing up to fail,” he said. “This was not meant to succeed.”

DJCBP spent more than $900,000 — mostly in cash payments — to buy a license that was originally obtained for less than $4,000 by the seller, he said. The person who secured the license was later hired by Tafoya to serve as a contracted assistant city attorney.

That attorney, Anthony Willoughby II, was dismissed from the civil case and previously denied any conflict existed. Galvan and Tafoya are longtime friends and Willoughby II’s father has served as Galvan’s personal attorney in the past.

Anthony Willoughby, the father, told the Southern California News Group in 2022 that Ju was simply experiencing buyer’s remorse and “even a blind man” would have realized there was “no way to make money” under Baldwin Park’s cannabis regulations.

Both Tafoya and Pacheco have pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges and admitted to creating a scheme that utilized consultants to funnel bribes to them from companies seeking cannabis licenses in Baldwin Park. The FBI seized $302,900 in bribes collected by Pacheco, including $62,900 found buried in his backyard.

Galvan was implicated by Tafoya and Pacheco’s plea deals and charged too, but has maintained his innocence. The criminal case against him is still ongoing. A judge had placed him on house arrest until recently.

Lozano, who served as the city’s mayor from 1999 until 2020 and then was reelected as a council member in 2024, has not been charged with any crime and has denied having a connection to the scandal.

The jury determined that Lozano had committed fraud through “alleged misrepresentations” contained in an April 20, 2018, press release that described Baldwin Park’s approach to cannabis regulations as “smart and fair” and as a “common sense framework” developed through study sessions, presentations, workshop and public hearings.

Lozano, Tafoya, Pacheco and the city were all represented by the same attorney, according to court records.

The attorney, Julia Sylva, did not respond to a request to comment and Baldwin Park’s current mayor, Alejandra Avila, issued a statement instead.

“The city of Baldwin Park respects the judicial process and acknowledges the jury’s verdict in the case,” Avila stated. “The court has not issued a final judgment yet in the matter. The city is examining its options and will provide additional information as the legal process moves forward.”

DJCBP bought the rights to a cannabis development agreement from a company called Tier One Consulting in late 2018. The lawsuit alleges Galvan initially approached DJCBP’s owner, David Ju, about purchasing a property to lease to Tier One’s eventual cannabis business and later persuaded Ju to buy out the owner’s stake in the license. Tafoya gave assurances to Ju throughout the process, even though transfers of development agreements were not permitted under Baldwin Park’s cannabis ordinance.

Lozano and Pacheco voted to approve the original development agreement with Tier One and Lozano later signed the amended agreement that passed those rights to Ju, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges the city clerk notarized the document and certified that Ju was present at the signing even though he was not in town.

The cannabis license turned out to be a money pit, with the city charging DJCBP hundreds of thousands of dollars annually based on a square-footage that didn’t align with the actual size of its building.

“This is a guy that was inundated with so much debt that when he did get operational, he was so far behind that he has yet to make a profit,” Torres-Siegrist said.

Torres-Siegrist has been trying to get Ju and others out of the agreements since the federal charges against Pacheco became public nearly five years ago.

A countersuit filed by the city alleged DJCBP had violated its contract and owed more than $2 million to the city. In their verdict, jurors stated that Baldwin Park had failed to prove the counterclaim’s case against Ju and DJCBP.

Torres-Siegrist said the city should have “done the right thing” and renegotiated the development agreements once the corruption scheme was exposed by federal authorities.

“The constituents of Baldwin Park are as much of a victim as my client,” he said. “These a–holes were lining their pockets with bribes and taking advantage of businesses.”