State Senator Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood) appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court Thursday morning to plead not guilty to charges of voter fraud and perjury. Prosecutors charge that Wright lives in Baldwin Hills, which is not in the 25th District that he represents. The 25th District includes Inglewood, Compton, Gardena, Hawthorn, Long Beach, San Pedro, Watts and Westchester. Wright claims he lives on Glenway Drive in Inglewood.

Wright was indicted September 13, 2010 on five counts of voter fraud, two counts of perjury and one count of filing a false declaration of candidacy. Wright was elected to the State Senate in November 2008. The investigation began a month earlier when prosecutors say they received a complaint that he lived outside the 25th District. Investigators determined that Wright has lived in a home in Baldwin Hills, in the 26th state Senate district, since 2000. Before he was elected to the senate, Wright served three terms in the California State Assembly representing the 48th Assembly District.

Wright’s attorney, Winston Kevin McKesson, said he expects the state senator to be “full exonerated.”

If convicted, Wright faces up to eight years and four months in prison, and he would be banned from every holding public office again. He will be back in court on October 8.

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