The office of Congresswoman Lois Capps (Democrat-California) is currently embroiled in a DUI case involving one of its employees. Investigators are probing claims that the Congresswoman’s office took some very suspicious steps after its employee was arrested in a fatal DUI hit-and-run accident.
The accident took place last December when Raymond Victor Morua, an Iraq war veteran and an employee in Congresswoman Capps’ office was involved in a hit-and-run accident. He struck a 27-year-old woman in a crosswalk in Santa Barbara. The woman sustained serious injuries, and died just a few days later.
In April this year, Morua pleaded guilty to charges of hitting the woman and fleeing the scene of the accident. He was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for manslaughter, and an additional five years for fleeing the scene of the accident.
However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into claims that one staffer at the Congresswoman‘s office tried to get him off the hook for jail time, just before the victim was taken off life support. The investigation is being launched on behalf of the Department Of Justice's Public Integrity section, which is responsible for investigating wrongdoing by public officials.
According to the allegations, the employee Molly Culver forged Morua’s signatures on paperwork so that he could be set to a veteran treatment facility, and could avoid jail time. However, when the victim was taken off life support on December 11, Culver immediately cut off all ties with Morua, and claimed that he was fired on December 8.
The case has gotten even more complicated, because the victim’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in which they claim that Morua was working for the Congresswoman's office on the night of the accident, and Capp was therefore, liable in the accident.
