EX-COUNTY WORKER JAILED PROSECUTORS SAY MEDICAL SITUATION FALSE.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

A 68-year-old former county planning employee awaiting sentencing in connection with pocketing money to issue illegal land certificates was jailed after the prosecutor told the judge he misrepresented a medical condition.

Prosecutors checked into Emmet Taylor's claim that eye surgery was needed to save his eyesight and that therefore his sentencing and custody time should be postponed indefinitely.

``I did a background check and talked to the eye doctor,'' Deputy District Attorney Leonard Torrealba said. ``The facts about eye surgery were misrepresented, and I filed a motion to increase bail based on the misrepresentation.''

Taylor, who had remained free after posting $100,000 bail, was taken into custody Wednesday after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders increased bail to $1.82 million. Taylor's sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 29.

Taylor is a former Los Angeles County Planning Department employee who is accused of collecting $500,000 to issue illegal certificates to landowners for hundreds of acres in Agua Dulce and Malibu.

Taylor pleaded no contest in May to three counts of falsification of public records after prosecutors agreed to dismiss 94 other counts. He faces up to four years in prison.

At Wednesday's hearing, the doctor testified that the eye surgery Taylor referred to in a medical affidavit was an elective procedure, Torrealba said.

``It was laser surgery that would take about 30 seconds to do. It was not necessary,'' Torrealba said. ``The surgery was an elective thing and wasn't an emergency.''

Taylor's attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Taylor had worked in the county Planning Department for 20 years before he came under suspicion in August 2000.

Prosecutors said Taylor ran a private company out of his home, forged grant deeds and issued fraudulent land-division certificates that bypassed the normal public review process.

The certificates were issued over a five-year period to landowners who avoided public hearings, thousands of dollars' worth of fees and other requirements to subdivide property, according to prosecutors.

Officials said Taylor's activities came under suspicion when one of his clients sent him payments - so-called ``consulting fees'' - to a county government address rather than to his home.

Taylor was fired in November 2000 and arrested two years later after an investigation by county officials, who reviewed more than 1,000 certificates of compliance dating back to the early 1990s.

The investigation led county officials to question all certificates of compliance, causing delays for property owners who sought permits to build on their land.

In many cases, officials said, property owners seemed to be trying to avoid setting aside part of their land for road easements.

In some cases, a property owner went through the usual public-hearing procedure and got permission to cut his land into smaller parcels, but applied for a certificate saying the land had been subdivided years earlier. That meant he didn't have to give up land for roads, investigators said.

Taylor sought to withdraw his plea, saying he did not fully understand his placement on parole and was impaired after taking a higher-than-normal dose of sedatives the morning of the plea.

In September, Pounders denied Taylor's request based on the parole argument. Taylor appealed that ruling but his appeal was denied by the Second District Court of Appeal.

Taylor withdrew his motion to nullify his plea because he was impaired, prosecutors said.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com