Reno City Council candidate shot police officer

Saturday, Aug. 1, 1998 | 3:36 a.m.

"The past is in the past," said Raymond Macha, who shot the officer when he was stopped for speeding 23 years ago.

"My life has changed. I am more responsible," said the candidate running in Ward 4.

Macha was 27 when he was sentenced to San Quentin state prison. He was released after spending five years inside and two on parole.

"I've done my time," he told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Macha, a founding member of the local Latinos for Political Education, said he's running for the council to try to become a voice for the underrepresented Hispanic community in the city.

Now a cook at a Circus Circus Casino restaurant, he said the shooting was the result of police harassment and that three of his friends had been killed by police in the tough Pico Rivera neighborhood where he grew up in Los Angeles.

Reno Police Chief Jerry Hoover said he was shocked to learn of Macha's past.

"I have no forgiveness for someone who shoots a cop," Hoover said.

Macha, 50, likely would be ineligible to run for office if the shooting had been in Nevada, said Laura Dancer, Washoe County registrar of voters.

But California automatically restores civil rights to convicts after their sentences are completed, she said.

"'Since his civil rights have been restored, he is eligible to vote and run for office," Dancer said.

Macha said he thought the officers who pulled him over 23 years ago were going to try to kill him. He got into a scuffle and shot one of the officer's with the officer's gun.

"I was getting harassed by the police on a regular basis," he said. "'Three of my close friends had been killed by the police. They said they had committed suicide ... They hung themselves in their cells."

Macha isn't the only candidate on the city council ballot with a checkered past.

One admits he once set his roommate's car on fire and another recently admitted to obtaining prescription drugs fraudulently.

Henry Lucero, a candidate in Ward 2, said he set the car on fire four years ago and pleaded guilty to property destruction, a misdemeanor. He told police he was upset because his male roommate continued to date women rather than return his affections.

Norris Bacho, also running in Ward 2, was fired from his city administrator job in September 1997. He had been accused of filing false moving expenses. He also admitted in court last week to fraudulently obtaining the prescription drugs.

He is to be sentenced Sept. 4, three days after the primary election.