*Casden executive pleads guilty

The guilty plea involves taking more than $100,000 in bribes from subcontractors in exchange for work on the company's projects. John Archibald was also charged with filing false tax returns. Under a plea bargain, Archibald is expected to be sentenced to 15 consecutive weekends at the Pasadena City Jail at his own expense. He also is expected to be fined $10,000 and ordered to pay $155,000 in restitution to Casden and $25,780 to the Franchise Tax Board. Here's the Daily News account.

You might recall that Archibald and the company's 14 subcontractors pleaded no contest in 2004 on an amended indictment charging them with one count each of money laundering. In the original indictment, Archibald was alleged to have organized efforts to raise illegal campaign contributions for candidates for city elections.

*Update: Casdan Properties head Alan Casdan issued this statement: "The financial dealings between the subcontractors and Mr. Archibald were old fashioned bribes, not campaign money laundering, and this should have been evident to expert investigators from the beginning. From the beginning, apparently, the DA had it all wrong. It is outrageous that they dragged me and my company into this originally. Their incompetence and wrongful allegations have caused me incalculable business harm. I am waiting for a public apology and to see the appropriate people fired from the DA’s staff."