Mayor Strains Credibility

Mayor Roger Hedgecock seems to want it both ways in regards to his recently ended plea-bargain negotiations.

First, he tried to bring the perjury and conspiracy case against him to an end by negotiating a deal satisfactory to him and to the prosecution. Then when those negotiations failed, he declared there could be no plea bargain because he is innocent, and he attacked Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller for making the mayor’s resignation from office a primary condition of any plea arrangement.

Apparently buoyed by finally having a new defense attorney on the case, Hedgecock predicted he would be acquitted in his next trial and reverted to his now-hackneyed refrain that the prosecution is politically motivated.

Knowing Hedgecock as they do, San Diegans were probably not surprised that he could move from serious plea-bargaining to a new declaration of innocence in the same week. This, after all is the man who declared victory after 11 of 12 jurors voted to convict him in his first trial. But for the mayor to suggest that Miller’s insistence on his resignation as part of any plea arrangement constitutes proof that the prosecution is politically motivated strains what little credibility Hedgecock has left on this subject.

If Hedgecock is judged guilty--be it by a jury, a judge or a plea--he should be removed from office. Miller and Asst. Dist. Atty. Richard Huffman would be irresponsible to agree to a plea bargain that did not contain that stipulation.

We were not among those who wrung their hands and complained because a single juror stood in the way of Hedgecock’s being convicted in February. The American system says the prosecution has to sway all 12, and that’s as it should be. We also continue to believe Hedgecock should be allowed to raise money for his defense unbridled by the city’s campaign contribution laws.

That Huffman was able to convince 11 jurors that Hedgecock was guilty of all 13 felony counts on which he was tried suggests that the charges are not irresponsible. And even a remote suggestion that the district attorney should not have insisted on his resignation as part of a plea bargain is absurd.