I
got the call at about 11 p.m. Tuesday night.
"Drayman is out," said the voice on the other end of the line. "Keep me out of it, but I think Drayman is out."
After years of investigations, thousands of hours of work by police and prosecutors, court delay after court delay, the infamous John Drayman, the Pony Ride Kid, the Montrose Mafioso, got just eight days in the gray bar hotel.
At the time of his indictment in 2012, prosecutors claimed that he stole between $304,000 and $880,000 from the Montrose Harvest Market during a seven-year period — a period that included a stint as Glendale's mayor.
It has been a sad chapter for the Crescenta Valley. At a point not long ago, Drayman represented the hope that Montrose would finally get a fair shake on the council dais. Now, mention of his name makes people's faces scrunch up like they've smelled bad cheese.