San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis dropped conflict of interest charges this morning against former firefighter union president and retirement board member Ron Saathoff for his role in the city’s pension underfunding scandal, ending one of the two criminal prosecutions related to the 2002 actions.
In January, the California Supreme Court threw out conflict of interest charges against five other retirement board members saying they didn’t receive a personalized financial gain from the decision to underfund the pension system in exchange for increased future benefits.
The court allowed charges against Saathoff to stand, but the ruling, Dumanis said in a press release, “substantially undermin[ed]” the case against him.
The decision is the latest in the string of pension legal failures. Our own Andrew Donohue took stock of the courtroom losses in pension cases after federal charges against retirement board members fell flat last month.
— LIAM DILLON