Prosecution Rests Its Case in Straza Jet Parts Trial
The prosecution rested its case Friday against George Straza and two former employees of Jet Air Inc., who are accused of defrauding the government. The defense will begin its presentation Tuesday.
Straza, 58, of Rancho Santa Fe, is on trial with his former corporate secretary, Alice Skinner, 57, of Lakeside, and his former vice president, Joao Costa, 50, of San Diego.
Straza is the former owner of Jet Air, an El Cajon firm that he recently sold. He is now in business under another name. The firm manufactured and refurbished jet engine parts.
The defendants are charged with 46 counts of conspiracy to defraud a government contractor and the United States, making false statements in billings, theft of government property and mail fraud.
Former Customer Testifies
Scotty Paulson, whose company bought aircraft parts, testified Friday about his order of 90 jet engine parts from Jet Air. The prosecution claims it was illegal for Jet Air to sell those parts because they belonged to a government contractor at the time.
Paulson, owner of Aerospace Innovators of Manhattan Beach, said Straza refused to sell the products to an East Coast business but agreed to sell the same parts to him.
Paulson said he once picked up a load of jet engine burner cans by meeting a Jet Air official at the Colony Kitchen restaurant in El Cajon, and that another load was received at the Lawrence Welk Country Club in Escondido.
Assistant U.S. Attorney George Hardy has alleged that the unusual pick-up spots showed that Jet Air officials wanted to conceal the shipments because they knew the dealings were illegal.
Straza’s attorney, Howard Weitzman, said the defendants were merely conducting business and did not know that anything they did was illegal.
On cross-examination, Paulson said one reason the Lawrence Welk site was chosen was because he didn’t want to drive all the way into El Cajon, and that the county club represented a half-way point between Manhattan Beach and El Cajon.
Other former employees testified earlier this week that they knew nothing about the arrangement for Aerospace Innovators to receive burner cans.
Hardy, the prosecutor, claimed the firm’s officials used blueprints from a government contractor without authorization to make the burner cans for the Manhattan Beach firm.
The jury trial started Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Leland Nielsen.
The defendants all remain free on varying amounts of bail.
Straza, Costa, and the firm itself are awaiting trial on another unrelated case involving similar charges.
