Ex-Commerce Mayor Details Casino Scheme

Former City of Commerce Mayor Robert Eula testified Friday that he used his cousin to set up a meeting in Las Vegas “with the right people” as the first step in a scheme that led to Eula and three other city officials getting secret shares in a poker casino.

Eula said he began talking about legalizing a card club in the summer of 1981 “with the thought that it would be good for our city. And if we could get financial interests for ourselves, we would pursue it in that way too.”

Fourth Prosecution Witness

The diminutive Eula was the fourth prosecution witness called in the Los Angeles federal court trial of Orange County businessman W. Patrick Moriarty and Las Vegas gambling figure Frank J. Sansone on charges that they bribed city officials to obtain a license to operate the California Commerce Club, which opened Aug. 1, 1983.

Under questioning by Michael Capizzi, assistant Orange County district attorney who has been appointed a federal prosecutor in this case, Eula related how the first meeting with Las Vegas gambling figures was set up in August, 1981.

“I talked to my cousin, Augie Randazzo, who is a card dealer at the MGM Grand, and asked him to introduce us to the right people,” Eula told the jury hearing the case in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge William J. Rea.

The meeting was scheduled so it would coincide with the an annual golfing retreat in Nevada sponsored by the City of Commerce for its residents and businessmen.

It was at that meeting that Randazzo introduced Sansone, then the manager of the card room at the MGM Grand, to Eula, who was accompanied by fellow Councilman Arthur Loya and city Director of Economic Development Phil C. Jacks. They later were to include Councilman Richard Vasquez in the scheme. All four city officials have pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges and agreed to be witnesses for the prosecution.

Details First Meeting

Questioned about that first meeting with Sansone, Eula testified:

“I told him we were looking for a man of his caliber who knew the card business . . . and he did indicate he was interested. I also told him we were looking for some kind of financial interest in it for ourselves . . . and he said there would be no problem in granting some sort of financial benefit, although nothing specific was mentioned.”

At Eula’s direction, Jacks later returned to Las Vegas for meetings with Sansone to firm up the compensation. Jacks testified earlier in the week that the city officials were offered secret shares in the club “with a predicted monthly income of $3,000 for each of them.”

Moriarty was later called into the card club project to provide financing for Sansone’s group and, according to prosecutors, went along with the plan to give the city officials hidden shares in the casino.