The State : Ex-Official Pleads Guilty

Former Irvine City Councilman C. David Baker pleaded guilty to forging a judge’s signature on a $48,000 check to cover last-minute expenses in his failed campaign for Congress. Baker, a 6-foot-9, 325-pound former basketball star at UC Irvine, stood motionless, hands firmly clasped behind his back, as he entered his plea to the single felony count. Sentencing was set for Nov. 14. Although Baker, 35, could be sentenced to up to three years in prison, Santa Ana Superior Court Judge Myron S. Brown indicated that it is unlikely that Baker will get jail time. Baker was charged with writing a check to himself on the account of the nonprofit Irvine Health Foundation on June 2, during the final days of his unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination in the 40th Congressional District. Baker, as executive director of the foundation, signed his own name and forged the second signature of the group’s chairman, Orange County Superior Court Judge David G. Sills.