Dominelli Says He Conspired With Hedgecock

SAN DIEGO — Admitting that he helped former Mayor Roger Hedgecock circumvent local election laws, former financier J. David (Jerry) Dominelli pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring with Hedgecock and two mutual friends to illegally finance Hedgecock’s 1983 mayoral campaign.

Dominelli’s guilty plea came during a Municipal Court hearing at which the former La Jolla financier, now serving a federal prison sentence for defrauding investors, admitted many of the allegations that Hedgecock and two other co-defendants--former Dominelli business associate Nancy Hoover and political consultant Tom Shepard--have vehemently denied over the last two years.

In a three-page sworn affidavit, Dominelli stated, for example, that at various meetings in 1981 and 1982, he and the three others discussed “the providing of financial assistance . . . to Hedgecock in his campaign for mayor” in excess of the city’s $250-per-person limit. Hedgecock, who resigned Dec. 10, shortly before being sentenced to one year in local custody and three years’ probation on a 13-count felony conviction, has repeatedly insisted that no such meetings occurred.

Perjury Charges Dropped

In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop perjury charges against Dominelli, who is recovering from a stroke suffered in prison in October, 1984. Presiding Municipal Judge Frederic Link sentenced Dominelli to a two-year prison sentence, to run concurrently with his 20-year federal sentence on income tax-evasion and fraud charges.

Hedgecock’s and Shepard’s attorneys immediately disputed Dominelli’s claims, noting in particular that his plea Monday will not lengthen his stay in prison.

Earlier Monday, Link refused to further delay Shepard’s and Hoover’s preliminary hearing, scheduled to begin Wednesday, on charges that they, too, provided illegal financial aid to Hedgecock.