Judge Reduces Felony Charge Against Councilmember's Son

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly indicated Lester Friedman's phone was seized. Both phones seized were associated with Adam Friedman.

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — A county judge on Monday reduced a felony charge against Adam Friedman, son of Beverly Hills Councilmember Lester Friedman, related to a fake Instagram account created during the city's recent municipal election.

The District Attorney charged Adam Friedman on July 13 with one felony count of identity theft and one misdemeanor count of internet/electronic impersonation, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office.

The judge did not drop the second misdemeanor charge Monday.

The district attorney’s office accused Adam Friedman of creating a fake Instagram account in which he posed as then-city council candidate Sharona Nazarian— who was running for the Beverly Hills City Council for the first time. Lester Friedman was running for his second term and ultimately took the top spot in the race by only six votes.

Friedman pleaded not guilty to both charges on July 18, according to the district attorney's office.
At Monday's preliminary hearing, Judge Mildred Escobedo said it was clear Friedman made the account with the "intention to thwart Nazarian's campaign to the benefit of Friedman's campaign, and apparently it worked."

Four witnesses took the stand in a nearly-empty downtown Los Angeles courtroom, detailing how they determined the fake account was tied to Adam Friedman— and the overall effect it had on Nazarian's campaign.

Creating a Timeline

The fake Instagram account with the username "Sharona4Gascon" was created on April 9, 2022 and deleted the next day, according to documents obtained from Meta through a search warrant. This was just under two months before the June 7 election.

The account posted photos saying Nazarian supported the locally unpopular District Attorney George Gascón. Nazarian later publicly expressed support for Gascón's recall after initially trying to take a more neutral position, she said.

Nazarian filed a police report with the Beverly Hills Police Department shortly after the account cropped up, and the department obtained search warrants related to the Instagram account, according to BHPD Officer Jeffrey Bedinian, who took the stand after Nazarian.

This initial search warrant brought back multiple IP addresses and one phone number, which investigators linked to Adam Friedman through additional search warrants to service providers, according to Avi Wizenfeld, Senior Investigator for the district attorney's office.

Authorities seized two phones associated with Adam Friedman, which they found at Adam and Lester Friedman's shared house with the same passcode, Wizenfeld said. The phones were in the back house of the two-house property shared by Adam and Lester Friedman, where Adam Friedman resides.

Lester Friedman told Patch his phone was never seized.

Investigators found searches about deleting an Instagram account around April 10 and 11, according to Eric Mankau, peace officer for the district attorney's office.

Significant Harm?

Nazarian lost campaign support and votes as a result of the fake Instagram account, she said on the witness stand. She received a number of concerned texts and direct messages when the fake account was created, she said.

Throughout the rest of her campaign Nazarian spent significant time clarifying her stance on Gascón and had people withhold their support because of her seeming approval of the district attorney, she said.

Nazarian's second-place positioning put her lower in line for the Beverly Hills Mayor position, she said Monday. Considering she and Lester Friedman were only separated by six votes, this may not have been the case without the controversy, she said.

Such political pushback and parody is to be expected for a political figure, Adam Friedman's lawyer argued Monday. His lawyer, who is also Adam Friedman's uncle, ultimately argued to have both charges dropped or for the felony charge to be reduced to a misdemeanor.

"It's political satire, it's political parody," Adam Friedman’s lawyer said. "That's something that comes with the territory of being a [political figure]."

The damages, he argued, were minimal considering Nazarian was elected to council.

The content and context of the account made it undeniable there was intent to harm Nazarian's campaign, Escobedo said. Even still, the damages did not suffice a felony charge, she said.

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