Moorpark Corruption Inquiry Chides Ferguson, but No Charges Are Sought

After a six-month investigation of alleged political corruption in Moorpark, the Ventura County district attorney’s office announced Tuesday that no criminal charges will filed against City Councilman Thomas C. (Bud) Ferguson, the main target of the inquiry.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas J. Hutchins, who headed the investigation, concluded in a report that Ferguson repeatedly lied under oath about his dealings with former City Councilman Danny Woolard, who alleged that Ferguson conspired with him in bribery and cover-up schemes.

Although Hutchins said there was not enough evidence to prosecute Ferguson on such charges, he questioned the conduct of the 68-year-old councilman.

“Bud Ferguson is a politician from a different era,” Hutchins said at a press conference at which he released nearly 300 pages of findings and transcripts from his investigation. “He has a sense of morality that is out of step with 20th-Century California politics. . . . The ethics of Bud Ferguson’s political style is something for the voters of Moorpark to decide.”

‘Back-Room Deals’

The actions of Ferguson, who was Moorpark’s mayor until March, have been characterized by “back-room deals” and political “back scratching,” Hutchins said.

The evidence gathered by the district attorney’s office will be turned over to the U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI for review for possible federal violations, Hutchins said.

Ferguson said Tuesday that he was pleased by the outcome of the investigation, but denied lying to investigators. He said he has never been involved in any wrongdoing since his election to the City Council in 1984.

“I didn’t knowingly tell the district attorney or anyone else a lie,” Ferguson said. “If I told them something, then it was the way I remembered it.”

The investigation was prompted by a series of highly publicized allegations made by Woolard after he was caught for stealing $5,500 from Moorpark Post Office, where he worked as a clerk. Woolard, 39, resigned from the City Council on Jan. 13, the day after he pleaded guilty to embezzlement.

A week earlier he had been granted limited immunity from prosecution by the district attorney in exchange for his testimony in the investigation.

Although a team of five investigators interviewed more than 50 people, including current and former officials of the eastern Ventura County city, most of the evidence cited in Hutchins’ report came from the two principals in the controversy, Woolard and Ferguson.

The most damaging evidence cited came from two tape recordings of face-to-face conversations with Ferguson that were secretly made in January by Woolard, who now is serving a six-month prison sentence for embezzlement.

Partial transcripts of the conversations show Ferguson acknowledging that he arranged $7,500 in loans to Woolard last September so that Woolard could replace money he had stolen from the Moorpark Post Office.

Woolard was caught, however, and later pleaded guilty in federal court to one charge of embezzling $5,500. He said he used the money to buy cocaine.

Hutchins’ report said prosecutors believe that Ferguson was trying to help Woolard cover up his crime, but that no criminal charge would be filed because “the available evidence is insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ferguson committed the crime” of acting as an accessory after the fact.

Denied Knowing of Theft

Ferguson denied the report’s allegation Tuesday, saying that he “did not know that Danny Woolard had ever taken a penny from the post office” when he arranged for Woolard to receive $7,500 in cash from him and two other men last Sept. 23.

In both his report and press conference, Hutchins noted that any criminal case would have been vulnerable because it would depend largely on the testimony of Woolard, which would be easy for a defense attorney to challenge.

“Woolard’s demeanor, his felony conviction, his conflicting statements concerning these events, his bias, his drug use and addiction, all so significantly affect his credibility that no material portion of a prosecution could be successfully predicated on his testimony alone,” Hutchins said in the report.

Having to depend on Woolard’s testimony also weakened a possible bribery charge against Ferguson, who acknowledged in the tape-recording that he knew of a $2,000 payment made to Woolard about the time of a controversial City Council vote, Hutchins said.

$2,000 Bribery Alleged

Woolard alleged that Ferguson arranged for him to receive a $2,000 bribe from a Simi Valley man for casting the tie-breaking vote on a proposal for a 254-acre housing development. The measure also created a fund to build a road providing access to property owned by a friend of Ferguson.

The development by Griffin Homes of Calabasas was approved by the City Council in February, 1986, after the project had been deadlocked earlier on a 2-2 vote. Ferguson cast the sole vote against the project when it passed.

Woolard alleged that Ferguson wanted to vote against the project to avert suspicion of misconduct but wanted to make certain it passed.

Woolard said he was instructed by Ferguson to push the council to require the developer to pay about $780,000 to the city for study of a 1.7-mile road that would connect the Moorpark and Simi Valley freeways.

City records showed that the road, which the city estimates would cost $7 million to $9 million, would provide access to about 500 acres owned by Robert F. Butler of Encino, Ferguson’s former employer and owner of the house where Ferguson lives. The property is now accessible only by a dirt road.

Link to Vote Not Proven

The district attorney’s investigation concluded that Ferguson did arrange for a $2,000 payment to Woolard. But there was not enough evidence that Ferguson “specifically intended that the loan influence Woolard’s position on the Griffin project,” a necessary element to prove bribery, the report said.

District attorney’s investigators were unable to find evidence that Ferguson had a financial interest in the Butler property, as alleged by Woolard, the report said.

Hutchins’ allegation that Ferguson lied to investigators stemmed in part from Ferguson’s denial Jan. 30 in sworn testimony to district attorney investigators. At that time, Ferguson denied that he knew anything about the $2,000 transaction or that he had even met with Woolard during the time of the secret tape-recordings, the report said.

Hutchins said Ferguson cannot be charged with perjury for lying under oath because the law does not apply to voluntary testimony given in a district attorney’s investigation. “It was insulting, an affront, unethical and immoral, but it was not a crime,” he said at the press conference.

Ironically, Woolard and Ferguson became allies on the Moorpark council shortly after they were elected in November, 1984.

Was Former Mentor

Woolard said Ferguson became his adviser on city affairs. The older man also loaned him $20,000 to $30,000, Woolard said, money he used on a cocaine habit. None of the loans were repaid, he said.

Ferguson, a retired machine shop owner, acknowledged loaning Woolard about $10,000 during that period, but said he thought his colleague was using the money to pay gambling debts.

The report, however, concluded that the loans were made to “cultivate an acquiescent partner on the City Council.”

“To the extent that a debtor-creditor relationship corrupts, then Ferguson corrupted Woolard,” the report said. But investigators could find no evidence that the loans influenced Woolard in any particular vote, the report said.

Ferguson was also cleared of allegations by Woolard and another councilman, John Galloway, that he violated state and federal campaign laws, the report said. He was accused of helping to conceal a large contribution to Galloway’s campaign in last November’s city election by arranging for it to be divided into a series of small contributions below the $100 reporting limit.

The report said the small donations were legitimate. It also said there was no proof that Ferguson had illegally donated $500 in Woolard’s name to the aborted 1986 congressional campaign of state Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks).

Finally, the district attorney’s report concluded that Ferguson did not violate the state’s open-meeting law, known as the Brown Act, when he began discussion of the city’s trash collection franchise during a closed City Council session on Jan. 22. A fellow council member objected to the topic as inappropriate for such a meeting and the discussion was immediately ended, the report said.

Ferguson, who was hospitalized for 21 days last month with a heart ailment, is facing a recall effort. He resigned in March as mayor, an honorary position on the five-member City Council, after being quoted in a local newspaper as making racial slurs.