More than a week later, amid mounting pressure from the Los Angeles Times and other local news media, he disclosed that his wife banged up his city-issued GMC Yukon in 2004 while driving with a suspended license and that he left the taxpayers to foot the $1,222 repair bill. He reimbursed the city last week.

"I realized that I should have spoken up earlier. That was a mistake," he said. "I mishandled the situation and I apologize."

Then it emerged that his wife had an outstanding arrest warrant for failing to appear in court on charges of driving without insurance and other offenses dating to 1998. She resolved the case Wednesday by pleading no contest to a misdemeanor.

"I was disorganized," Michelle Delgadillo told a TV station on Thursday. "There's no excuse for it. I'm not going to make excuses for myself. I have to be an organized person, there's no doubt about it. I made a mistake."

It turned out she wasn't the only one in the family who drove without insurance: Her husband later acknowledged he had gone a year without coverage.

The Times, which followed Delgadillo's troubles in an editorial page fixture it called "Rocky Watch," also reported that the city attorney had used members of his staff to run personal errands and baby-sit his two young sons. A spokesman for Delgadillo confirmed that staff members have tended to some family and personal needs, but on their own time or during lunch breaks.

Finally, it was discovered that a consulting and business development company operated by his wife failed to file state tax returns for several years and did not have a city business license. On Friday, she paid an undisclosed amount in fees and penalties for not registering her company with the city, but said she reported the consulting income on her personal tax returns.

"Here's a sobering observation," the Times editorial page wrote. "Any police officer who committed Delgadillo's offenses would be fired, and appropriately so. Why does the city's top law enforcement official get a better deal than its rank and file?"

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