of the meetings for which other council members billed the city tens of thousands of dollars. Velez testified that he did not recall any of the council members doing any work for any of the committees or if there were ever actually any meetings held at all. "I should have asked more questions, I'm not denying that", said Velez, the only member of the city council who did not take a large salary. "If ignorance is a crime, I guess I'm guilty." Velez was defeated in the March 2011 election. The defendants at this preliminary hearing were Hernandez, Jacobo, Mirabal, former Mayor George Cole and former Councilmen Luis Artiga and Victor Bello. Former city clerk, Rebecca Valdez, testified at the hearing she was instructed by Rizzo to lie to a resident, Roger Ramirez, who had enquired about council members salaries. The first witness at the preliminary hearing, Ramirez testified that when he confronted Rizzo at a city council meeting, regarding the rumors that he was paid $400,000 a year, "He immediately said, 'No, Mr. Ramirez, if I would be making $400,000 a year I wouldn't be working here". Ramirez had previously filed a public records request with City Hall. The bogus records he was given showed Rizzo was earning about $15,000 per month, and City Council members a couple hundred dollars per month. Valdez, who was granted limited immunity, stated she prepared the documents and Rizzo changed the correct figures much lower than the actual salaries; she was ordered to show the falsified lowered figures to Ramirez. She also testified that Rizzo awarded himself contracts with hefty raises without any approval from the city attorney. Bell's administrative services director, Lourdes Garcia, said shortly before she gave Ramirez the falsified documents, City Clerk Rebecca Valdez confided to her that Rizzo had directed her to have Mayor Hernandez retroactively sign Rizzo's contracts, although Hernandez was not mayor during the period that the contracts were written. "She was crying", Garcia said about Valdez. "She was very nervous." Valdez testified at the earlier hearing that Rizzo had instructed her to give Ramirez the fabricated figures. A pretrial hearing was set for May 2011 for the six defendants. They all had to be arraigned again after the judge made the decision to put them on trial. They all pleaded not guilty to all charges The trial began January 22, 2013, with deliberations beginning February 28.