Jury convicts former county assessor

Former Orange County Assessor Webster Guillory was convicted Wednesday of filing false nomination papers in a reelection bid for county assessor.

The 71-year-old Newport Beach resident was found guilty in Orange County Superior Court of two misdemeanor counts of filing false nomination papers in the June 2014 primary.

He faces probation to two years in jail at his Jan. 8 sentencing, according to a news release.

The case against Guillory focused on a March 7, 2014, campaign filing deadline. On that day, Guillory collected signatures on two petitions. There were nine on the first petition and two on the second.

An associate circulated petitions and gathered three full pages of 10 signatures each. Guillory signed his name on two of the 10-signature petitions gathered by his associate, knowing that he had not personally collected the signatures or witnessed them being written, according to prosecutors.

An affidavit in the petitions reads, “I circulated the petition and witnessed the signatures on this section of the nomination paper being written.”

Before the filing deadline, Guillory fraudulently filed two nomination papers at the Orange County Registrar of Voters, knowing the papers contained false information on who circulated the petitions and collected the signatures, according to the district attorney.

An attorney for Guillory called the filing an honest mistake according to a media report.

The charges were previously filed as a felony, but the court reduced them to misdemeanors.

Guillory was a four-term elected county assessor.