U.S. Marshals ‘Sold’ Lucrative Contract, Prosecutors Charge

Two U.S. marshals from Orange County violated their positions of public trust by essentially selling off a lucrative government contract for their own personal gain, prosecutors charged Wednesday in federal court in Santa Ana.

Federal attorneys opened the trial of Joseph Gieniec, 43, of Santa Ana, and Gordon Tornberg, 59, of Tustin, by detailing for the first time the motives behind the alleged kickback scheme.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Bruce E. Reinhart told the jury that Gieniec and Tornberg, both former marshals in the federal courthouse in Los Angeles, successfully extracted thousands of dollars----”payment after payment after payment”----from the head of a Santa Ana security firm in exchange for helping it obtain a government contract worth about $400,000 over several years.

But a defense attorney countered that whatever money changed hands was merely a reflection of the friendship between the men, not of corruption and graft.

‘Nothing Sinister Here’

“There was nothing sinister here,” said attorney James L. Waltz, who promised to show that the government’s key witness----Joseph Rydzewski, 33, owner of Lyons International Security----is lying about a kickback scheme in which he allegedly paid more than $7,600, plus other financial favors.

Rydzewski had been charged along with Gieniec and Tornberg with various illegal gratuities counts, but he pleaded guilty and is now cooperating with prosecutors. Federal officials refused to comment on any concessions made to Rydzewski in exchange for his testimony, an issue Waltz raised before the jury.

Rydzewski is expected to testify perhaps as early as today in the trial before U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts. The trial is expected to last at least until next week.

Reinhart said that around 1982, Gieniec, at the instruction of Tornberg, a superior, began looking for a private security firm to guard property such as boats and cash seized in federal investigations. The U.S. Marshals Service had become overburdened by the task.

Rydzewski’s firm was eventually contracted for the job, receiving about $400,000 between about 1982 and 1984, Reinhart said.

In earlier newspaper interviews, Gieniec had discounted the charges against him as “ludicrous,” saying that he did not have the power as deputy marshal to hire or fire anyone. But Reinhart disputed that in his opening statement, saying Gieniec and Tornberg essentially controlled the contract and that “Gieniec was in a position to take that contract away from Lyons Security.”

The prosecutor asserted that the two men used that position to their advantage, securing from Rydzewski more than $7,600 in cash payments and “hush money,” jobs for friends and relatives, and other financial favors that include mortgage payments and loans.

If convicted of all the charges, Gieniec faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and $50,000 in fines, and Tornberg faces six years in prison and $30,000 in fines, Reinhart said. Rydzewski, who has already pleaded guilty, could get six years plus fines.