Moriarty Case Ends, but Anger and Hard Feelings Keep It Alive

The investigation of W. Patrick Moriarty, former Anaheim fireworks magnate and political corrupter, may be over, but the impact and bitterness for some Orange County politicians remains, two who knew him said this week.

Supervisor Don R. Roth said he still is angry about attempts by his opponent in last year’s campaign for supervisor, then Orange Mayor Jim Beam, to link him to Moriarty.

“It seemed if you wanted to smear somebody, use the word ‘Moriarty,’ ” Roth said. “And it’s unfortunate that’s what happened.”

Roth was never a part of the investigation by federal and local authorities into Moriarty. Bruce Nestande was.

Nestande resigned as supervisor in January, midway through his second term, but he said then and says now that the inquiry into his ties to Moriarty was never a factor in that decision.

“As a former public official, in my estimation, when you get into politics, you’re into that kind of risk” of being linked to people like Moriarty, Nestande said. “The Moriartys of the world have always been around, and they will continue to be around.”

Federal prosecutors announced last Friday that they were closing their investigation of Moriarty after convicting 11 men of bribery, fraud and other charges.

Moriarty was convicted and sentenced to seven years in federal prison. Councilmen in the cities of Commerce, Long Beach and Carson, a banker and former state Assemblyman Bruce Young also were convicted as a result of the most extensive investigation of California elected officials in the last 30 years.

Nestande said he never was called before grand juries in connection with the probes of his behind-the-scenes support for R.E. Wolfe Enterprises of Orange County. That firm was organized by R.E. Wolfe, a Kansas City contractor, and by Moriarty in an effort to win a contract to operate landfills in Orange County.

Proposals to turn over the county’s landfill operations to private firms have been before the supervisors for several years, although the final decision was to keep them county-operated.

In 1983, Nestande returned $18,000 in campaign donations after he said he learned that they actually came from Moriarty and not from the individuals who first claimed to be making them.

“I know that when I found out that he was sending those checks through other people and (it was) improper, we confronted him with it and returned the $18,000,” Nestande said. “I knew I was going to be in the eye of the hurricane. And I’m sure (Moriarty) didn’t appreciate it.”

But in politics, “that’s what you’re in,” Nestande said, and politicians who find themselves involved in investigations of political corruption have to “wait for the system to wash it out.”

Nestande, who was trounced by Secretary of State March Fong Eu last November when he was the Republican candidate for the office, said that he had told numerous people over the years that “if I wasn’t a statewide officeholder by the time I was in my late 40s, I was going to get out.” At age 49, he now is vice president of Arnel Development Co. of Costa Mesa.

Roth said Monday that when he received $1,000 in political contributions from Moriarty in 1982, Roth was mayor of Anaheim and Moriarty “was a reputable businessman” in the city.

“I never received what you would call big contributions,” Roth said. “We’d sell him a ticket for $75 or $100 to a fund-raiser, and he would participate. My dealings were based on him strictly being an Anaheim businessman.”

Roth reported the Moriarty contributions as required by law, and it was not until the following year that the investigations of Moriarty began.

Roth was never implicated in the inquiries. But last year during Roth’s campaign for supervisor, a former Moriarty associate, Richard Raymond Keith, alleged in a letter to a federal judge that Moriarty more than once provided Roth with the use of a condominium in Palm Springs.

Roth vehemently denied it. If he had borrowed a condo, he would have been required to report it, according to the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

In a telephone poll during the campaign, the Beam forces mentioned Keith’s charges and also asked questions that implied to some that Moriarty provided prostitutes to Roth. But no one had ever named Roth as one of the people to whom Moriarty allegedly provided prostitutes.

“It’s just unfortunate,” Roth said this week, “that is the popular type of thing to do (in a political campaign), find some kind of smear and hope it will work.”

“I don’t like that kind of politics,” he said. “To this day, my wife is still smarting over those types of accusations and I don’t think that’s nice . . . and I don’t think it works.”

Ironically, Roth and Beam battled for the seat held by Supervisor Ralph B. Clark, who declined to run for reelection, he said, because of his age, 70, his health and questions about his own links to Moriarty.

Clark always denied allegations by a former Moriarty associate that Moriarty had provided him with prostitutes, but he said he knew the charges would be raised in a campaign.

A former Anaheim mayor, Clark was reported to be visiting Anaheim’s sister city in Japan this week and was unavailable for comment.

Another one-time Orange County politician, former Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove), also was accused of receiving prostitutes from Moriarty.

Robinson, who unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Robert Dornan (R-Garden Grove) last year for a congressional seat, neither confirmed nor denied the charges in an interview with The Times last year, saying that it would not be a factor in the campaign.

Robinson, who is now a manager in the Century City office of Bear Stearns & Co., the New York investment banking and brokerage firm, could not be reached for comment.