Verdict Prompts Feelings of Sympathy, Satisfaction

More than any other San Diego politician in the last decade, Roger Hedgecock engendered passionate feelings of love from his legions of supporters and hate from his enemies, and those emotions poured forth Wednesday after the mayor’s conviction on perjury and conspiracy charges.

At 1:37 p.m., as the Superior Court clerk read the first of 13 guilty verdicts, longtime Hedgecock aide Kevin Sweeney, seated with the mayor’s family in the front row of the courtroom, began to sob unabashedly, the first tears from people who had dedicated their professional and personal lives to what had once seemed a political future without bounds.

Cindy Hedgecock, the mayor’s wife, held her composure in the courtroom, but fell sobbing into the arms of J. Michael McDade, for many years one of the mayor’s closest friends and his former chief of staff, after the proceedings were completed.

And after the courtroom cleared, Hedgecock’s friends and foes alike reflected on the rise and fall of a bright young mayor whose lust for power, they all agreed, finally got the best of him.

“It’s a real tragedy in a classic sense and a massive step backwards in local politics,” McDade said outside the courtroom. “Even his detractors admitted that he was one of the few bright lights on the local scene. Roger’s personality traits made him less than loved, but never less than respected.”

Mike Gotch, Hedgecock’s closest political ally on the City Council, said the mayor “remains a friend. I’m sorry that he and the city had to go through this decision. He will be remembered at City Hall for attempting more than any mayor before him in modern times to involve the average person in the working of government. . . . That’s what Roger represented. More than a convention center, more than a growth management era, he represented openness at City Hall.”

Jay Powell, of the local chapter of the Sierra Club; Frank Garland, a spokesman for Save Our Shore, a group opposing offshore oil drilling, and Chris Kehoe, editor of the Gayzette, a weekly newspaper widely circulated in the city’s homosexual community, each said his interest group had lost its first true friend in San Diego politics. Each agreed that Hedgecock’s downfall was a tragedy for countless groups that before him had been disenfranchised in San Diego politics.

“I’m sad today for many reasons,” said Police Chief Bill Kolender, who is widely regarded as a prospective candidate to succeed Hedgecock. “I’m sad for Roger, I’m sad for his family, and I’m sad for the City of San Diego. It’s causing a lot of pain in many different circles.”

“Obviously, I have very strong feelings for Roger and his family, because he is a friend of mine,” said Ballard Smith, president of the San Diego Padres and one of several prominent businessmen who in March set up a meeting with Hedgecock and Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller in an unsuccessful attempt to arrange a plea bargain in the mayor’s case. “Certainly he was an excellent mayor, but his tactics eventually were his downfall,” Smith said.

Superior Court Judge Richard Huffman, who left the district attorney’s office shortly after prosecuting the first Hedgecock trial, which ended in a hung jury, said he “sensed the tragedy this is to a powerful and popular person who had considerable promise to his career.”

“But from all I know of the evidence, the verdict was justified,” said Huffman. “I’m proud of the fact that we have proved the government polices itself. We met this situation head-on and dealt with it properly.”

Hedgecock’s conviction was received with considerably less sympathy by his political enemies.

County Supervisor Paul Eckert, whose vitriolic exchanges with Hedgecock regularly rocked the County Administration Center during the years the two served on the Board of Supervisors, said he had “no regrets” about Hedgecock’s downfall.

“I have no outpouring of sympathy for the man,” said Eckert, who added that his first reaction was, “Gee, maybe someone will believe me now. . . . I’ve been saying all along they would find him guilty.”

Former Supervisor Paul Fordem, another frequent target of Hedgecock’s wrath, said: “The man generated more strong feelings pro and con than any other politician I can remember. He was so impatient and ambitious. To those of us whom he gave tongue-lashings, this is an ironic piece of justice.”

Councilman Bill Cleator, reacting to news of the verdict, charged the mayor with stealing the 1983 mayoral election, in which he was an unsuccessful candidate. “When you were his enemy,” Cleator said, “you could feel the knife coming into your heart.”

Nevertheless, Cleator characterized the verdict as “a tragedy,” saying, “You can’t work with him and not have the feeling that this is a terrible waste. And you can’t look at his wife and kids, and the look on his face, if you have any heart, and not feel any compassion.

“But on the other side of the ledger, on the political side of the ledger, you know good and well if the shoe was on the other foot and I would have broken those rules, I would have had to face up to the consequences.”

Political consultant David Lewis, who managed Maureen O’Connor’s campaign for mayor against Hedgecock in 1983, said he “felt very, very sad. No matter what your political differences are, you can’t help but feel bad when you know what it means to someone’s life and their career.”

Lewis said Hedgecock’s downfall was “his desire to succeed, his desire to break out of San Diego and go on to greater things. He took a couple of shortcuts, and that appears to be his undoing. I sincerely mean it when I say he was a very good mayor, and it’s a shame for the city that this has happened.”

Supervisor Susan Golding, who now represents the same district that launched Hedgecock’s political career, said her first reaction was “one of sadness. I think it’s a devastating thing to happen to any human being.”

Times staff writers Ralph Frammolino and Daniel M. Weintraub contributed to this report.