Los Angeles is a city world renowned for its strange stories, but few come curiouser than the tale of audacious, new L.A. City Attorney, Carmen Trutanich, and his alleged bully-boy tactics against one of L.A.’s most prominent corporations, AEG, owner of the Staples Center, for $6 million payment to cover city services provided during the Michael Jackson memorial. According to AEG’s President and Chief Executive Tim Leiweke (pictured left), Trutanich has threatened to “go after you guys” if the money went unpaid. Leiweke said,

“I wouldn’t say it was extortion. I would say it’s a bully tactic. That’s the way I would put it. He’s trying to bully us. And he’s done it on three different occasions.”

Trutanich’s communications director, John Franklin, said,

“The city attorney has never said anything bad about AEG. He said they are good citizens. He just wants them to pay the bill versus the taxpayers. He had nothing against AEG.”

Trutanich, who took office in July and hastily built a reputation for his brash and unorthodox ways, recently threatened to throw City Councilwoman Jan Perry in jail and file criminal charges against the city’s top building-and-safety official if they violated his directives regarding AEG. He has blocked sign permits for AEG’s new downtown movie theater, and attempted to delay the city’s plans to lease billboard space to AEG at the L.A. Convention Center. Leiweke further alleges that Trutanich ordered investigations into AEG’s old fire permits, and even the cracks in the sidewalks at Staples Center and L.A. Live, both owned by the Anschutz Entertainment Group.

Leiweke believes Trutanich’s apparent friction with his company is politically motivated and stems from a fundraiser he held for Trutanich’s opponent, Jack Weiss’s campaign. However, the city attorney’s people dismiss such a claim as “absurd.”

The conflict then rolled over to the King of Pop’s documentary, “This Is It,” premiering today at the grand opening of AEG’s new cinema at L.A. Live, with Trutanich stopping the company erecting on its building wall signs advertising the movie. In an eleventh-hour savior, AEG won the right to display its marketing materials for the film.

Now, with an apparent bloody nose, it will be intriguing to witness the L.A. City Attorney make his next move against his city’s hugely influential company-cum-adversary.

Digital Cheeseburger acknowledges the Los Angeles Times as source for this article.

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