Goodman In on a New Tampering ‘Sting’ : Mayor Hedgecock’s Attorney Assists--Reluctantly-- With FBI Bust

For the second time since he became Mayor Roger Hedgecock’s defense attorney, Oscar Goodman has turned state’s evidence.

Goodman played the lead role Friday in an FBI “sting” that led to the arrest on a felony fraud charge of a San Diego man who claimed he could provide evidence of jury tampering in the retrial that resulted in Hedgecock’s conviction.

Leon Haywood, 51, pleaded not guilty Monday in U.S. District Court. Federal prosecutors alleged that Haywood told Goodman he represented a juror who would provide information “that would guarantee a new trial for Hedgecock” in exchange for $50,000.

In fact, Haywood had access to no such information, according to Robert Rose, an assistant U.S. attorney. “There isn’t anything to suggest this guy could do anything he proposed to do,” Rose said.

During Hedgecock’s retrial, Goodman cooperated with the state attorney general’s office in an investigation prompted by a woman’s demand for $50,000 to keep quiet about alleged illegal campaign contributions to Hedgecock from Mexican mobsters.

In both instances, Goodman--who in the past has defended the subjects of government stings--pretended to play along with the alleged schemers while he in fact was helping officials snare them.

“I don’t enjoy it one bit,” Goodman said Monday in an interview from his Las Vegas office. “I’d like to defend both of these individuals who are involved.”

In the latest case, according to an FBI affidavit filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Goodman contacted FBI agents in Las Vegas on Thursday, after Haywood called him from San Diego to offer information about jury tampering in Hedgecock’s retrial.

Agents arranged to record Goodman’s return phone call to Haywood from Las Vegas on Friday. Haywood promised during the conversation that the juror’s information would “make things turn” in Goodman’s favor in the Hedgecock case, according to the affidavit.

Later Friday, Goodman flew to San Diego and arranged to meet with Haywood at the Executive Hotel. At the meeting, recorded by FBI agents in an adjoining room, Haywood said the juror would go to the media with information about jury tampering as soon as Goodman turned over the $50,000, the affidavit alleged.

Goodman then handed Haywood a briefcase containing $200 in cash and bundles of bogus bills. As Haywood opened it, FBI agents came into the room to arrest him.

In the earlier case, Goodman went as far as wearing a hidden microphone to help state investigators record a meeting where he refused to meet the still-unidentified woman’s demand for hush money. Hedgecock had assured Goodman that there was no substance to the woman’s allegations that Hedgecock received illegal campaign contributions from Mexican mobsters.

But Goodman said he entered the conversations with Haywood hopeful that the self-employed cement contractor genuinely had information that would help Hedgecock’s case.

“There’s an expectation of genuineness, or else the individual wouldn’t be making the call,” Goodman said. But when callers demand money in exchange for information, “at that point in time the authorities have to be brought in,” he added.

Haywood, who told authorities he also was known as Omar Shaheed, was imprisoned about three years ago on a bad-check conviction, according to Rose. Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit and white tennis shoes, Haywood told U.S. Magistrate E.A. Infante that he is the father of nine children and employs three people in his contracting business.

Infante ordered Haywood held in lieu of $25,000 bond.

The San Diego County district attorney’s office is continuing to investigate the earlier incident of alleged extortion but does not consider it a high priority, according to spokesman Steve Casey.

Prosecutors instead have spent their time preparing for a hearing on Goodman’s request for a new trial for Hedgecock, Casey said.

Goodman said the district attorney’s slow handling of the earlier case led him to turn to the FBI, not San Diego authorities, when he was contacted by Haywood.

A defense attorney through and through, Goodman said he took no pleasure in playing along with the FBI sting.

“I was sick to my stomach after it took place,” he said. “But I can’t let these things go unnoticed.”