Mistrial Called in Fraud Case Against 2 Ex-Officials, 3 Others

SAN DIEGO — After 53 days of testimony, a mistrial was declared Tuesday in the federal mail fraud case against two former high-ranking San Diego County officials and three telecommunications executives.

“We can’t unring the bell,” said U.S. District Judge Earl B. Gilliam in making the ruling, explaining that grand jury indictments and trial testimony included prejudicial material against the defendants that, under a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, he would not have allowed.

The high court ruled that public officials may not be convicted in mail fraud schemes unless prosecutors prove that the taxpayers lost money--not simply that the politicians or bureaucrats enriched themselves or their associates.

The five defendants and their attorneys were charged with identical counts of mail fraud in connection with the awarding of a $24.5-million county contract for a sophisticated microwave communications system to Telink Inc. of Anaheim.

The five are Hilario (Larry) Gonsales, former county director of general services; Abraham Stein, former county communications chief; Don Woodaman, president of the now-defunct consulting firm Telecommunications Design Corp.; Robert Schreiber, vice president of the former Telecomm Consultants Inc., the firm hired by the county to evaluate bids on the communications system for county offices, and Jim Linder, former marketing director for Telink.

Telink and its parent company, Florida-based Burnup & Sims Inc., pleaded no contest last year to criminal charges in the case and agreed to pay more than $1 million for prosecution costs of the 13 individuals and the two corporations indicted by the federal grand jury in 1984.