D.A. Won't File Felony Charges Against Alarcon Staffer Who Struck and Killed Pedestrian in North Hollywood

The District Attorney's office announced Wednesday it will not be pursuing a felony case against a Los Angeles City Council staffer who struck and killed a pedestrian in North Hollywood in March, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

Instead, the D.A. sent the file to the City Attorney's Office for review.

The incident occurred on March 14 when Manuel "Manny" Figueras, an aide to Councilman Richard Alarcon, struck and killed North Hollywood resident Gary Woodford while driving a city-owned car at the intersection of Vineland Avenue and Erwin Street, according to the LA Weekly, which published a large investigation of the accident and raised questions about if some city and police officials conspired to keep the accident from being publicized.

At the time of the accident, Alarcon was engaged in a bitter , which includes part of North Hollywood. Further complicating matters is the fact that Figueras was driving a city-issued vehicle. The car, a 2002 Toyota Prius, is one of more than 100 take-home vehicles assigned to elected city officials and their staff, according to the Daily News.

The LA Weekly wrote the following:

Eyewitnesses tell the Weekly that Figueras called 911 after striking Woodford but did not try to help the badly bleeding man.
After the fatal crash, odd things began to happen. A draft press release, written by an LAPD traffic captain hours after the fatality, was never made public. A City Hall reporter for the Los Angeles Times did know about it soon after it happened, Alarcon says. The Times asked if Alarcon had been driving. He had not — and the paper ran no story. Yet LAPD's top press officers, Andy Neiman and Andrew Smith, say they had no clue that a City Hall official had killed a pedestrian — until the Weekly called in mid-June.

"We don't always release the name of the driver, but if it's a city vehicle involved, we'd typically admit that," Neiman told the Weekly. "That's not something we need to keep from the public."

North Hollywood-Toluca Lake Patch never received any notice from the LAPD or city about the accident, but would have found it newsworthy, with or without the fact that a city official was driving the car.