San Diego

The trial of a San Diego cement contractor who allegedly sought to extort $50,000 from former Mayor Roger Hedgecock’s attorney began Wednesday.

The seven-man, five-woman jury heard opening statements from Assistant U.S. Atty. Bob Rose and defense attorney Charles Adair and testimony from one witness in the federal fraud trial of Leon Haywood, 51, before recessing until Friday.

Rose said Haywood, in an Oct. 30 phone conversation with Las Vegas attorney Oscar Goodman, claimed to represent an unnamed juror in Hedgecock’s second trial who had “dynamite information that would guarantee a new trial” for him.

Haywood, of the 200 block of Terol Court in Encanto, has been in custody since his Nov. 1 arrest. Rose said Haywood claimed he would receive $10,000 for acting as a middleman between the juror and Goodman.

Hedgecock, who was tried a second time in Superior Court on perjury and conspiracy charges arising from his 1983 campaign after the first trial ended in a hung jury, had been convicted by a jury three weeks before Haywood’s call. Hedgecock remains free on his own recognizance pending appeal of his conviction.