Former Temple City Mayor Cathe Wilson to be released from prison in June

For several weeks there have been uncorroborated reports that embattled former Temple City mayor Catherine
(Cathe) Wilson had been released from prison and was resting at home.
Beacon Media has confirmed that Wilson, however, remains in Federal custody at Chowchilla Women’s Correctional Facility where she has been an inmate since Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Alex Ricciardulli sentenced her on July 14, 2011. Wilson’s sentence on bribery and perjury charges was the final piece in Temple City’s largest scandal, The Piazza Project.
Lt. Travis Wright, Public Information Officer at Chowchilla told Beacon Media that while he couldn’t give us an exact release date, Wilson is scheduled to be discharged from Chowchilla custody sometime in the month of June, 2013.
On the day Wilson was sentenced in July 2011, paramedics rushed former mayor Wilson’s aid after she let out excruciating shrieks when Judge Ricciardulli sentenced her to four years in state prison on bribery and perjury charges.
Wilson, 76, cried and groaned repeatedly and then appeared to gag and quiver in her chair as Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Alex Ricciardulli pronounced sentence.
“No,” said Wilson after hearing the verdict, who was convicted on three counts each of bribery and perjury involving a $75 million commercial project proposed by developer Randy Wang.
“I don’t know how else to describe it except callous greed,” Ricciardulli said before sentencing.
She was initially transported to hospital and then the Chowchilla.
The release date now being set for Wilson closes a dark and stormy few chapters in Temple City’s politics.
Wilson, her then campaign manager Scott Carwile as well as former Temple City mayor Judy Wong, were indicted in June 2009 on charges that bribes were demanded and received in 2007 from Wang for his ambitious Temple City Piazza project.
Wong, then 54, pleaded no contest and was sentenced last year to 16 months in state prison. She was released in May 2011.
Carwile pleaded guilty to a perjury count and was sentenced to three years probation and one day in county jail.
Jay Liyanage, who pleaded guilty to a felony charge of giving bribes, was also sentenced to three years probation. Former Temple City councilman David Capra, who was charged separately with a misdemeanor, pleaded no contest in 2009 to one count of failure to report a campaign contribution.

-Photo and story by Terry Miller

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