Alarcon convictions overturned on appeal

The perjury and voter fraud convictions of former Los Angeles City Councilman and state lawmaker Richard Alarcon were overturned Wednesday by a panel of appeals court justices. The 2014 convictions of Alarcon's wife, Flora Montes de Oca Alarcon, were also overturned. The legal case alleged that Alarcon did not live where he certified that he did in order to vote and run for office, and that both Alarcons lied about it. The appeal centered on a judge's instruction to the jury about how to decide whether the Alarcons met the legal definition of living in their Panorama City house, as they claimed, or in another house they owned in Sun Valley, outside Richard Alarcon's city council district.

Both Alarcons have already finished their sentences. He served 51 days of house arrest in lieu of a 120-day jail sentence, She served community service.

Richard Alarcon happened to be at City Hall today. “I’m just feeling grateful — grateful to all the people who never stopped believing in us,” the former councilman says in the LA Times. Dakota Smith of the Daily News tweeted a picture of a relieved Alarcon. He told Smith he has no intention of running for public office again, even if a ban on elected office that came with his sentence is removed.

District Attorney Jackie Lacey's office is weighing whether to retry the Alarcons.

Here's a happy-looking Richard Alarcon, talking about ruling. He happened to be at LA City Hall today. pic.twitter.com/4cDJPejMnz

— Dakota Smith (@dakotacdsmith) January 20, 2016