2026 is shaping up to be a year of city council candidates with problematic pasts.
You may recall that a registered sex offender is running for the Fresno City Council. Now, in Los Angeles, City Councilmember Tim McOsker is facing a re-election challenge from a man who stabbed someone at age twelve.
The allegations against candidate Jordan Rivers are detailed in previous legal filings which were first reported on Monday by the California Post and picked up by the Los Angeles Times.
“In a lawsuit, Nicholas Parszik and his parents alleged that Rivers stabbed Nicholas, then 8, while the two boys were playing video games in the garage of Nicholas’ San Pedro home on July 30, 2016,” according to the Times.
The suit says Rivers stabbed the boy repeatedly, including around the neck, leaving him with “severe and life threatening” injuries.
However, "in an interview with The Times, Rivers denied attacking Nicholas. He said he had been cooking and accidentally brought a cooking knife to the younger boy’s home.
“He forgot that he had put the knife under a video game controller, and the two began ‘play fighting,’”
Since juvenile criminal records are sealed, the details of the incident could not be independently verified. Rivers says law enforcement was involved but that he did not serve time in juvenile hall. The lawsuit was settled out of court for $10,000. The Parszik family says Rivers’ mother never paid the money and now owes $7,941.71 in interest.
Rivers says he has no intention of dropping out of the race.