‘It Seems Like a Waste of Time’ : Hedgecock Predicts Juries Will ‘Just Keep Hanging’

In the wake of the mistrial caused by a deadlocked jury in his felony conspiracy and perjury case, Mayor Roger Hedgecock, his attorney and some of the mayor’s closest aides said Thursday they believe the best outcome Hedgecock could hope for in a second trial would be another hung jury, not outright acquittal.

“It seems like a waste of time to go through this again, because I think juries . . . are going to just keep on hanging,” Hedgecock said of a prospective second trial that might not start until this summer.

“That disappoints me,” the mayor said. “Obviously, I’d prefer to win it. But it could be a lot worse. Losing would be worse . . . than not winning.”

Prosecutors, though, encouraged that the jury in the seven-week trial that ended in a mistrial Wednesday had deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of conviction on all 13 felony counts facing Hedgecock, said that they would enter a second trial with renewed confidence that they can obtain a guilty verdict.

“From our vantage point . . . we had 11 out of 12 jurors who were ready to convict the mayor on all counts,” said Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller Jr. “Wouldn’t that lead one to believe that we have an excellent case?”

However, Hedgecock’s attorney, Michael Pancer, said he doubts that “any jury will ever” agree on either an acquittal or conviction in the complex case. A conviction on any of the felony charges facing the 38-year-old mayor likely would force him out of office.

“It’s hard for me to imagine . . . getting 12 (jurors) agreeing either way,” Pancer said. “If anything, I’d expect the numbers to be a little more balanced the next time.”

Although Hedgecock often boasted during his reelection campaign last fall that the case against him would be “laughed out of court,” the mayor’s chief of staff, J. Michael McDade, conceded on Thursday that Hedgecock faces the “very real prospect” of perhaps having to fight to retain his office “through a succession of hung juries”--a situation somewhat analogous to a football team playing for a tie.

“That certainly isn’t the preferable scenario, but it’s an acceptable one,” McDade said. “Clearly, it’s not as attractive as an acquittal. There might be some problems, but I don’t think it would prevent Roger from being an effective mayor.”

Financial Disclosure

The charges facing Hedgecock stem from allegations that he intentionally falsified financial disclosure statements to cover up tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions from Nancy Hoover and J. David (Jerry) Dominelli, former principals in the now-bankrupt La Jolla investment firm of J. David & Co. Prosecutors charge that the money was funneled into Hedgecock’s 1983 mayoral campaign via a political consulting firm owned by Tom Shepard, a close friend of the mayor.

Hedgecock, however, has characterized the $361,500 that Hoover and Dominelli invested in Tom Shepard & Associates as a “routine business deal” intended primarily to help Shepard start his own business, not to get Hedgecock elected mayor. The errors and omissions on his financial disclosure reports, Hedgecock contends, are inadvertent mistakes.

Although Hedgecock said he hoped that a “cooling-off period” might persuade prosecutors that a retrial “isn’t worth the time, the money or the agony for them, for me or for the city,” a retrial appears to be all but a certainty. Indeed, Assistant Dist. Atty. Richard D. Huffman, who prosecuted the case, said that prosecutors would be “derelict in our duty” if they did not retry a trial in which a hung jury was tilted 11 to 1 in favor of a conviction.

Hearing Today

The case could be scheduled for retrial at a hearing today in Superior Court. Pancer, however, said Thursday that other trials will prevent him from retrying the Hedgecock case until July and that he plans to ask for a one-month postponement in the scheduling of a retrial date. Although Hedgecock could switch to another attorney to expedite the case, aides to the mayor said that he is unlikely to do so.

Pancer conceded that the delay could lead to Hedgecock’s trial being combined with that of his three alleged co-conspirators, but said he is unconcerned about that possibility. Prosecutors, however, have said that it sometimes is easier to convince a jury that a conspiracy existed when all of the alleged conspirators are tried together.

The mayor candidly admitted that he regards his prospects for acquittal in the complex case as slim, regardless of whether he is tried separately or with the three other defendants. However, he added that while he may not be able to win the case outright, he also believes that Huffman “can’t win it, either.

‘90% Chance’

“Huffman has to know that my chances of getting at least one juror to hang next time are about 90%,” Hedgecock said. “And his chances of getting a jury where maybe about half will agree with him are probably better than 50%. But the chances of either one of us getting all 12 people to agree with us are about zero. So what’s the purpose?”

While Hedgecock called his first trial “the worst time of my life,” he adamantly insisted that he has no plans to seek a plea bargain in regard to a second trial or offer to resign in return for a promise that the case will not be retried.