{"id":4270,"date":"2014-06-12T00:30:05","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T07:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/?p=4270"},"modified":"2017-02-20T16:08:58","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T23:08:58","slug":"l-a-times-federal-officials-to-investigate-fatal-dui-involving-former-house-aide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=4270","title":{"rendered":"L.A. Times: &#8220;Federal officials to investigate fatal DUI involving former House aide&#8221; after D.A.&#8217;s referral of series on peterlance.com to U.S. Dept. of Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"L.A.%20Times%3A%20%22Federal%20officials%20to%20investigate%20fatal%20DUI%20involving%20former%20House%20aide%22%20after%20D.A.%27s%20referral%20of%20series%20on%20peterlance.com%20to%20U.S.%20Dept.%20of%20Justice\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p><strong>By MAYA SRIKRISHNAN\u00a0June 12th, 2014. Los Angeles Times.<\/strong>\u00a0<a title=\"LAT Feds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-la-probe-capps-aide-20140612-story.html\">CLICK IMAGE<\/a> for online story. The U.S. Justice Department is looking into the events surrounding a fatal car accident last year that sent a former California congressional aide to prison, according to a statement from U.S. Rep. Lois Capps\u2019 office.<\/p>\n<p>Army veteran Raymond Morua was employed as a field director for Capps (D-Santa Barbara) in December when he hit Mallory Dies, 27, as she crossed a street in downtown Santa Barbara, according to Santa Barbara Superior Court documents.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-la-probe-capps-aide-20140612-story.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-4274 alignright\" title=\"Screen Shot 2014-06-13 at 11.04.15 AM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Screen-Shot-2014-06-13-at-11.04.15-AM1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"466\" height=\"295\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Screen-Shot-2014-06-13-at-11.04.15-AM1.png 720w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Screen-Shot-2014-06-13-at-11.04.15-AM1-300x190.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 466px) 100vw, 466px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Morua pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, among other charges, and was sentenced in May to 20 years to life in state prison.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department\u2019s probe began after Santa Barbara Dist. Atty. Joyce Dudley sent a five-part newspaper series from<a title=\"5 parter\" href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=3153\">\u00a0the Santa Barbara News-Press\u00a0<\/a>to the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<div id=\"trb_ad_articleCube_4_2_4_\/local\/lanow\/la-me-la-probe-capps-aide-20140612-story.html\" data-role=\"adloader adloader_ad\" data-withinviewport-options=\"bottomOffset=100\" data-adloader-position=\"articleCube_4\" data-adloader-size=\"300x250\" data-adloader-adtype=\"cube\" data-adloader-label=\"\" data-adloader-admapkey=\"articleCube_4_2_4_\/local\/lanow\/la-me-la-probe-capps-aide-20140612-story.html\" data-state=\"adloader_loaded\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/4011\/trb.latimes\/news\/local\/blog\/lanow_4__container__\">&#8220;Our office welcomes the\u00a0DOJ&#8217;s\u00a0inquiry, which\u00a0will enable the community to move past the false allegations\u00a0asserted\u00a0in tabloid media coverage,&#8221; a statement from Capps&#8217; office said, referring to the News-Press\u2019 articles.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Times was unable to reach the Justice Department for comment.<\/p>\n<p>In April, Matt and Raeona Dies filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Morua, Capps and the U.S. government, claiming the congresswoman hired the aide despite being aware that he had previous drunken driving convictions and that he was on the clock when the accident occurred.<\/p>\n<p>According to court records, Morua had two prior DUI arrests, a hit-and-run and an embezzlement conviction.<\/p>\n<p>Capps is facing a tough reelection fight in her district, which includes Santa Barbara. Votes from the June 3 primary are still being counted to determine her opposing candidate for November.<\/p>\n<p>Capps\u2019 office said staffers did not know of Morua\u2019s criminal history when he was hired, and have since decided to &#8220;implement even stronger requirements and worked with U.S. Capitol Police to conduct criminal background checks on all current employees&#8221; and future potential hires.<\/p>\n<p>As for the night of the incident, Capps\u2019 office says Morua wasn\u2019t on official business.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To be clear, Raymond was attending [a] holiday party of his own volition; he was not asked to attend and had no official role on\u00a0the congresswoman\u2019s\u00a0behalf at the event,&#8221; according to the statement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Follow\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/msrikris\">@msrikris<\/a>\u00a0for more breaking news from Los Angeles and throughout California.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"L.A.%20Times%3A%20%22Federal%20officials%20to%20investigate%20fatal%20DUI%20involving%20former%20House%20aide%22%20after%20D.A.%27s%20referral%20of%20series%20on%20peterlance.com%20to%20U.S.%20Dept.%20of%20Justice\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>By MAYA SRIKRISHNAN\u00a0June 12th, 2014. Los Angeles Times.\u00a0CLICK IMAGE for online story. The U.S. Justice Department is looking into the events surrounding a fatal car accident last year that sent a former California congressional aide to prison, according to a statement from U.S. Rep. Lois Capps\u2019 office. Army veteran Raymond Morua was employed as a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1184],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4270"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4276,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270\/revisions\/4276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}