Steel perjury trial delayed to October

A jury trial for Costa Mesa Councilman Chris Steel on felony perjury

charges won't happen until mid-October, his attorney Ron Cordova said.

A final pretrial conference is set for Sept. 6, he said. That will be

followed by the trial in October, Cordova added. He said the case has

been delayed because a new deputy district attorney needs to be assigned

to it after the promotion of Mike Lubinski, its previous prosecutor.

The district attorney, in May 2001, charged Steel with two counts of

perjury, saying that he falsified election nomination papers during the

2000 and 1998 elections. Steel is accused of allowing a resident to sign

the papers for his wife in 2000 and for himself signing for a legally

blind woman in 1998.