EX-PLANNER ASKS TO RECANT EARLIER PLEA.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

A former Los Angeles County planning department employee accused of collecting $500,000 to issue illegal certificates to land owners is seeking to withdraw a no-contest plea he made in May to charges of falsifying public records.

Emmet Taylor, 67, of Fullerton had taken a higher-than-normal dose of sedatives the morning of the plea, which affected his ability to understand what was going on, prosecutors said.

``Apparently he said he took too many sedatives that morning. He was nervous. He also said he didn't understand that he was going to be placed on parole,'' Deputy District Attorney Leonard Torrealba said.

The case has been continued until next week for a judge's ruling on Taylor's motion to withdraw his plea and for possible sentencing in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Taylor faces up to four years in prison.

Taylor was represented by a court-appointed attorney at the time of his plea. He has since retained a private attorney, Glen Jonas.

``He was not properly adviced regarding the consequences of a no-contest plea and was heavily medicated during the proceedings,'' Jonas said. ``Mr. Taylor has consistently maintained his innocence.''

Taylor was charged with collecting the money in fees to issue the illegal certificates for hundreds of acres in Agua Dulce and Malibu. He pleaded no contest in May to three counts of falsification of public records after prosecutors agreed to dismiss 94 other counts.

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.

Prosecutors estimated that the cost of investigating and correcting what Taylor did was $1.5 million to $2 million. 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.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com