Facing a hung jury, King City police chief pleads no contest.
Nick Baldiviez, shown in his 2014 mug shot, is charged with embezzling a former police car that was converted into a show car.
Posted: Wednesday, July 29, 2015 6:30 pm
After a three-week trial and two days of deliberations, a jury was unable to reach a decision in the case of Nick Baldiviez, the retired King City police chief who was arrested in a February 2014 sweep.
Faced with the prospect of a whole new trial, Baldiviez reached a plea deal with prosecutors. Wednesday afternoon, he pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts, one for embezzlement of a police car and one of obstruction of justice for lying to investigators.
Baldiviez was on trial for charges of felony embezzlement and felony perjury.
He will be back in court Sept. 16 for sentencing, and faces up to two years in jail.
Baldiviez became the sixth of seven people arrested in King City on Feb. 25, 2014 to agree to a plea deal. Officer Bobby Carrillo is still on target to go to trial, with a court appearance scheduled for Aug. 11.
At issue in Baldiviez’s case was whether he signed DMV paperwork transferring a King City police car from the city to Police Officer Mario Mottu, Sr.
Investigators found the souped-up police car with Lamborghini doors and a custom paint job (that had Mottu’s name painted in elaborate script) in Mottu’s garage.
He’s invested some $6,000 of his own money on the paint job, rims and vanity plates that read “NCUSTODY.”
Mottu pleaded no contest to two counts of embezzlement, one felony and one misdemeanor, for accepting the police car. ”
This is the moral character of the “Heroes in blue”
Remember this guy the next time a cop is trying to get moral with you
Remember this guy when you go to tell your kid who the cops are
Remember this guy if you are ever on a jury and hear a cop’s testimony
These people are liars, abusers and thugs
Remember this guy if you ever see a cop giving someone a hard time
Make sure that any encounter you have with them you are aware of who they are and that you are in danger
Film them at all times or they will lie
But most of all remember this:
As long as they go safely home at night
Everything is all right
Deborah Lee Jarrett 