Charges Traded by 2 Figures in Dispute

Rep. Bobbi Fiedler, indicted on charges that she offered state Sen. Ed Davis a $100,000 contribution to quit the Republican U.S. Senate primary, traded charges with Davis Monday, with the congresswoman declaring herself an innocent victim of political chicanery and Davis asserting that he did not entrap her.

“I know what I said and I know I did not say what they are claiming,” Fiedler asserted after a brief courtroom appearance in the downtown Criminal Courts Building. “I am very anxious to see as much information is brought out as quickly as possible because I know that I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Fiedler, in her impromptu press session on the steps of City Hall, blamed her plight in varying degrees on Davis, Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner and grand jury member Richard Ferraro, with whom she once served on the Los Angeles school board.

Davis, meanwhile, flatly denied charges by the Fiedler camp that he or his staff were the first to suggest that the congresswoman pay off his $100,000 campaign debt.

“The law of entrapment is that you have to plant in the mind of the defendant the idea to commit a crime, and we did no such thing,” said Davis at an hour-long Sacramento news conference. “It just appalls me that anyone could think that I could be bought.”

Fiedler, 48, and her chief aide, Paul Clarke, 39, were indicted by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury last week on charges that they attempted to persuade Davis to withdraw from the primary race in exchange for the $100,000. Sources have told The Times that the indictment--under an obscure state election code statute--resulted in part from a conversation secretly recorded by Davis’ campaign manager, Martha Zilm, during a visit to Fiedler’s Northridge home Jan. 12.

Two-Month Inquiry

Both Fiedler and Clarke attended the session, in which Zilm was said to have been wired for sound by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. The office undertook a two-month investigation of the Fiedler campaign after the allegations were first reported by the Davis campaign to law enforcement officials Nov. 13.

In court Monday morning, Fiedler’s arraignment and plea were continued until Feb. 7 at the request of her attorneys. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Aurelio Munoz had also granted a defense continuance request Friday when the indictment was first made public.

Attorneys for Fiedler have told Munoz they want to wait to enter a plea until they study prosecution evidence and an as-yet unprepared transcript of the grand jury proceedings, where seven witnesses--including Zilm--testified.

“We must have (the transcript) before we can make an intelligent decision on how to get to court as readily as possible,” said attorney John Yzurdiaga, who along with counsels Roger Jon Diamond and Herb Steinberg, make up Fiedler’s defense team. The defense can either proceed directly to trial or request a post-indictment preliminary hearing, which would almost surely delay resolution of the case until well past the June 3 primary.

While Fiedler said Monday she would make public the transcripts and secret tapes, her lawyers cautioned that they would make no final judgment until reviewing the material.

“Tapes can be turned on and off so until we know precisely what’s on it, we have to reserve our decision on that,” Yzurdiaga said.

Taking the Offensive

Fiedler, at her morning press session, took the offensive, lashing out at Davis, Reiner and Ferraro and declaring that she is “innocent of any wrongdoing.”

Fiedler charged that Davis, a former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, was a “desperate” politician who would do anything to knock her out of the Senate race at a time when he was having trouble raising campaign funds.

“It’s very difficult,” said Fiedler, “to understand the desperate nature of an individual who may not be doing as well as he would have liked to have done and trying to jump in at any opportunity to take advantage of hurting what he might consider to be a significant opponent.”

Fiedler said, moreover, that any dealings she had with the Davis campaign were under the assumption that the Valencia senator had already halted his candidacy. “As far as I was concerned, when my particular involvement in this process took place, I was dealing with somebody who had already made a decision to leave the race.”

But Davis responded vehemently to such charges at his own press conference, denying that he had ever intended to quit the campaign because of his debt. Indeed, he asserted, he may have been the victim of Watergate-style “political espionage.”

The state senator said he first discussed the debt in an Oct. 5 conversation with two aides, Zilm and staffer Hunt Braley, and that he had no idea how word of the debt leaked.

But on Nov. 8, Davis continued, Zilm received a phone call from one of Davis’ campaign contributors, George Moss. Davis said Moss, “a fine, ethical businessman,” relayed an offer from the Fiedler camp to pay off his $100,000 campaign debt if Davis withdrew from the Senate race.

“That naturally shocked the living dickens out of me because in my mind that had to be a federal felony,” said Davis.

The senator said he immediately had Zilm contact his lawyer, Dana Reed, who suggested it was a violation of state law, not of federal law.

Davis said the information was first turned over to the Ventura County district attorney’s office, which in turn sent it to the Los Angeles County district attorney. Then, after Reiner’s office contacted him, Davis said, he instructed Zilm “to cooperate fully with them.”

Fiedler Monday also questioned the integrity of the grand jury process, attacking Ferraro, who she said could not have acted objectively during deliberations of the 23-member panel since he had once served with her on the Los Angeles Board of Education.

Question of Objectivity

“There were times when we had great divergences of opinion on issues,” Fiedler said of Ferraro, a one-time close political ally. “It’s clear as far as I’m concerned that there is no way that he could possibly render an objective opinion on any situation that affected me.”

In court, defense counsel Steinberg went a step further, calling for an investigation of Ferraro’s role in the indictment. Judge Munoz, however, took no immediate action on the request.

Ferraro, reached at home, refused to disclose whether he voted in favor of the indictment and declined any comment on the case.

However, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Gilbert I. Garcetti said Monday that regardless of how Ferraro voted, Fiedler has no proof he was not objective. Besides, Garcetti added, the district attorney’s office could re-file charges against Fiedler and Clarke on its own in the unlikely event that a judge would quash the indictment.

Attack on Reiner

Fiedler also criticized Reiner, saying the timing of the indictment was a “political ploy” to divert attention from Reiner’s recent decision to drop charges against five defendants in the highly publicized McMartin Pre-School molestation case.

Reiner left the country early Monday on a vacation and could not be reached for comment.

But Garcetti issued a pointed response, saying the timing was pure coincidence and that regardless of Fiedler’s accusations, the grand jury itself determined that there was enough evidence to justify the felony indictment.

“I guess if I were in Fiedler’s position,” said Garcetti, “I would attempt to get the finger that is currently pointed at me pointed away from me. And the easiest thing to do is to call this a political stunt by someone.”