Talks on Hedgecock Plea Bargain Gain; Court Delay Sought

Negotiations to settle Mayor Roger Hedgecock’s felony conspiracy and perjury case resumed Friday, and enough progess was made that attorneys agreed to ask for a delay in a court hearing Monday so they can continue plea-bargaining talks.

Friday’s talks were a marked contrast to developments just 18 hours earlier when both prosecutors and Hedgecock’s defense attorney walked out of closed-door negotiations in Superior Court and said that talks had broken off without an agreement. Both sides predicted Hedgecock would face a second trial on the felonies.

Several sources knowledgeable about the negotiations say the out-of-court settlement could include dropping 14 of the 15 felony counts in exchange for Hedgecock’s resignation, and then resolving the remaining conspiracy charge in a rarely used legal procedure called a “trial on the transcript.” In such a procedure, Hedgecock would submit to the decision of a judge who would rule after reading the transcript of the mayor’s first trial, which ended in a hung jury.

Impact on Civil Suit

The plea bargain also would involve settlement of a $1.2-million civil lawsuit filed against the mayor and several supporters by the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission for a substantially smaller fine than the suit seeks.

Early Friday afternoon Dist. Atty. Edwin L. Miller and Assistant Dist. Atty. Richard D. Huffman met for 90 minutes with Michael Pancer, Hedgecock’s defense attorney, in Pancer’s downtown San Diego office. The attorneys met with J. Michael McDade, Hedgecock’s chief of staff, and decided to buy more time for plea-bargaining negotiations next week by asking Superior Court Judge Barbara Gamer to delay a court hearing scheduled for Monday.

Pancer, who has asked to be removed from the case, had predicted that Hedgecock would name a new defense attorney at the Monday hearing, and sources close to the case said the new choice could be Oscar B. Goodman, a Las Vegas attorney who recently represented federal Judge Harry Claiborne in a Nevada case that ended with Claiborne’s conviction for income tax evasion.

Because of the impending change, the Monday hearing was perceived as a sort of deadline for plea-bargaining negotiations and discussions took on an added air of urgency.

Continuation of Talks

Friday, however, Pancer said he wants the Monday deadline pushed back a week so he can continue to talk with Miller and Huffman.

Miller did not return telephone calls to his office, and Huffman declined to discuss the meeting or how it came about.

“I don’t have any comment today,” he said. “I don’t have any agreement today. There’s really nothing to discuss today.”

The meeting Friday was an informal one between the attorneys, in contrast to their appearances at five court-mandated “readiness conferences” convened by Superior Court Judge Ross G. Tharp. Such conferences are routine in felony cases to see if a plea bargain can be struck.

Conferences Convened

Tharp, who left San Diego Friday for a vacation in Mexico, convened conferences on Wednesday and Thursday, the latter a complicated affair that lasted four hours and involved more than 12 attorneys and San Diego business leaders. FPPC Chairman Dan Stanford also flew here from Sacramento on Thursday to attend the conference.

According to several sources familiar with the negotiations, the discussions have focused on these elements of a possible plea bargain:

- The mayor’s resignation.

- An agreement that 14 felony perjury charges facing Hedgecock be dropped.

- A “trial on the transcript” for the single felony conspiracy count against the mayor. This technique would allow Hedgecock to submit a transcript of his first trial, which ended in a hung jury Feb. 13, to a judge who would determine whether the mayor is guilty or innocent. The procedure would avoid lengthy hearings and attorneys fees for Hedgecock, and could mean he would not have to enter a plea in the case.

- A possible stipulated settlement with the FPPC in which the agency would set an official fine of as much as $200,000, but later collect a reduced amount, perhaps less than $50,000. Negotiators are arguing over the amount of money. The FPPC has sued Hedgecock for what it alleges is his part in more than 450 violations of local campaign contribution ordinances.

At least one sticking point in the criminal negotiations, sources have told The Times, is the sentencing on the conspiracy count. It is believed that Hedgecock’s camp wants to make sure that any felony conspiracy conviction be reduced to a misdemeanor by the sentencing judge, a move that would mean any criminal finding would have no impact on the civil case.

Fred R. Wertz, one of Hedgecock’s attorneys in the civil matter, said Friday he has held no further discussions with Stanford about the FPPC suit since the four hours they spent Thursday evening in Tharp’s court.

‘Have No Agreement’

“There’s no progress in the civil matter,” Wertz said Friday. “Whatever progress was made was yesterday, and we made substantial progress.

“We have no agreement, and we may talk next week. There is some distance to cover.”

Stanford said Friday he was making telephone calls to other FPPC commissioners to tell them about Thursday’s session in Tharp’s court. Stanford said the calls were not a formal vote of the commission and that he had no plans to call a special meeting to consider a possible settlement of the lawsuit.

Times staff writers Daniel M. Weintraub and Lanie Jones contributed to this article.