Alatorre Owes $40,000 in Legal Bills, Reports Say

City Councilman Richard Alatorre has run up more than $40,000 in bills with law firms that represented him in state and local ethics investigations, according to public reports filed Monday.

The unpaid legal bills were listed by a holdover committee from Alatorre’s 1995 reelection campaign. State authorities said the councilman can use the committee to pay fines and legal expenses stemming from last year’s investigations.

In September, after a Times story examined Alatorre’s links to two charities that hired an event planning firm founded by his wife, the Eastside lawmaker admitted improperly intervening with city regulators on behalf of the company and agreed to pay $8,000 in penalties. The committee paid the fines after receiving a $4,000 loan from Alatorre and raising an additional $4,500, including $500 each from Buenavision Telecommunications and Parking Co. of America.

The unpaid bills do not appear to include more recent legal costs for Alatorre’s team of criminal defense attorneys--Jack Quinn and Eric L. Dobberteen. Quinn, a longtime Alatorre associate, and Dobberteen, a former federal prosecutor, were rehired recently after FBI and IRS agents began investigating the councilman’s personal finances.

Alatorre, who has denied wrongdoing in the current probe, is focused on crime and other matters important to his district, a spokeswoman said, adding she is unaware of any fund-raising plans to cover the legal fees.