With seven weeks left for elections to the City Council, the contest between District 14 Councilmember José Huizar and Eagle Rock businessman Rudy Martinez took its nastiest turn yet as Martinez made the startling disclosure that the FBI had interviewed him some six months ago about a range of issues, including repairs that he had organized at a Spanish-style rental house that Huizar and his wife Richelle Rios own in El Sereno.

The Los Angeles Times quoted Martinez as saying yesterday that two FBI agents had interviewed him for two hours about the house repairs in the summer of 2010 in Glendale (where Martinez was living at the time). Martinez told the Times that the work—which included a new carpet, plaster repairs and painting—was done in 2006 and 2007 at a cost of $10,330, which he had not been paid for.

About a week ago, said Martinez, he received a check for $8,980 from Rios, along with a letter from Huizar in which the councilman asked whether he had a contractor’s license to undertake house repairs—a question that Martinez answered in the Times story by saying that he did not need a license for the job “because the repairs were cosmetic.”

Michael Trujillo, a consultant working for the Huizar campaign, denied that the councilmember was under an FBI investigation but confirmed that Huizar had “a business dispute” with Martinez. “It has been paid,” Trujillo said, referring to the outstanding sum of money Huizar owed Martinez.

“There is no FBI investigation,” Trujillo told Eagle Rock Patch, adding tongue-in-cheek: “Jose Huizar faked the shuttle landing on the moon, Elvis lives in his garage and Princess Diana babysits his kids.” The joke was an echo of what both Huizar and his campaign have been saying for a while—that Martinez is making wild allegations in a desperate bid to boost his electoral fortunes.

As Parke Skelton, Huizar’s campaign manager, told the Times: Martinez is “stirring up as much trouble for José as he possibly can" in an effort to detract from his [Martinez’s] flagging campaign. The Times reported that the FBI neither confirmed nor denied the existence of any investigation against Huizar. The Times also reported that two former staff members of Huizar's office, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said federal agents had questioned them about the councilmember's banking details in separate interviews.

Voted to the City Council in a special election in 2005 and re-elected to a four-year term in 2007, Huizar is seeking re-election on March 8. Among the string of allegations and counter-allegations characterizing this election campaign, Martinez has accused Huizar of misusing $1.1 million in city recycling funds meant for community development work, and the councilman has pointed frequently to the fact that Martinez was convicted—in the late 1980s and early 1990s—on two misdemeanor counts of battery pertaining to assault with a deadly weapon, as well as reckless driving and loitering.

In a related development, the Public Integrity Division in the office of the Los Angeles County District Attorney is investigating a complaint of alleged money laundering by an individual in the Martinez campaign.

Dave Demerjian, head deputy in the Public Integrity Division, told Eagle Rock Patch today that his office had received a complaint last Thursday, Feb. 27, that a person named Juan Jaramillo “may have laundered campaign funds for the Rudy Martinez campaign.” Demerjian declined to disclose the source of the complaint but confirmed that “there is an inquiry” about the matter underway.

In recent weeks, news about the City Council District 14 election campaign has been rife with allegations that Nick Pacheco, an attorney who was defeated in council elections by Huizar’s predecessor, now-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, had instructed employees in his mortgage-related law firm to sign campaign checks for Martinez. According to the allegations, Pacheco then reimbursed his employees in what would be a violation of campaign laws.

In a recent interview with Eagle Rock Patch, Martinez denied that Pacheco had funded his campaign but acknowledged that the two have been longtime friends. Martinez admits that he and Huizar, too, were friends until as recently as early 2010, and that his mother worked in Huizar’s City Council office until last June.

Meanwhile, the Public Integrity Division’s Demerjian confirmed that he had sent an e-mail—evidently regarding the alleged money laundering in the Martinez campaign—to Carlos Lira, one of Pacheco’s former employees reported to be linked to the alleged campaign scandal.

In the e-mail, a copy of which Eagle Rock Patch obtained through an anonymous source, Demerjian wrote: “The Public Integrity Division will be opening an inquiry into this matter. I will assign the case to an attorney and an investigator. One of them will be contacting you in the near future to gather additional information. If you are requested to make any additional contributions please contact me immediately. Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.”

Demerjian declined to discuss any further details with Eagle Rock Patch beyond saying that “I’m confirming that I did send the e-mail but I’m not confirming what the e-mail was about.”