Lawyers Accused of Illegal Donations

Two Irvine lawyers have been charged with making illegal contributions to City Atty. Gail Hutton’s 1986 campaign, but one said Wednesday they had complied with the law.

The Orange County district attorney’s office this week filed 31 misdemeanor charges against attorneys Wesley L. Davis and Peter J. DiGrazia, accusing them of disguising corporate campaign donations by using law firm employees as the nominal donors. Davis and DiGrazia are private lawyers specializing in flood litigation, and they represented the city during its 1983-1989 battle against lawsuits stemming from 1983 floods in Huntington Beach.

Davis said Wednesday the accusations about his and DiGrazia’s attempting to disguise campaign donations were not true.

“We believe we’ve fulfilled all the intent of the law and disclosed the donations properly,” he said.

Hutton also said her 1986 campaign fully complied with state law in disclosing all sources of donations.

“I received 500 donations from 500 different persons (in 1986), and I and my (campaign) committee reported all of them by name, address, and amount as required by law,” Hutton said.

No charges have been filed against Hutton.

The accusations against Davis and DiGrazia charge that they funneled up to $2,000 in donations to Hutton in 1986, even though city law limits an individual donor to giving only $300 per campaign.

In a court document filed in Municipal Court in Westminster, the district attorney’s office said it began investigating the Davis and DiGrazia donations in September, 1989. A report filed by Douglas S. Miller, investigator for the district attorney’s office, said he had interviewed several Davis-DiGrazia employees, including Marianne Westerdoll, a secretary.

Miller’s report said: “I asked her (Westerdoll) if she made a contribution to the election campaign of Gail Hutton, and she became very nervous and stated she was unsure if she should talk to me. Westerdoll went on to say that sometime in 1986 there was a meeting held of all employees at the law firm of Davis and DiGrazia.

“She said the meeting was called by both Davis and DiGrazia, and they told the employees that Gail Hutton was running for office again in Huntington Beach, and that they wanted to make a contribution to her campaign. . . . They told the employees that the employee would write a check to the campaign from the employee’s personal checking account, and that Davis and DiGrazia would reimburse the employee for the contribution.”

Davis said Wednesday that no attempt was made to disguise donations.

“All the persons are listed on the campaign reports as employees of our office,” he said.

Davis also said that he and DiGrazia have not received any favorable treatment from Hutton’s office because of their 1986 donations. Davis said the law partners have been doing contract work for the Huntington Beach city attorney’s office since 1975, three years before Hutton was first elected.

Davis said the firm’s biggest case for the city was the 1983-1989 flood litigation--the longest civil trial in Orange County history. The law firm ultimately succeeded in getting the city dismissed from all claims against it.

Davis said that he and DiGrazia received about $600,000 in total fees for the six years of work on that flood case. Since Hutton’s reelection in 1986, he said, the company has only received two minor cases from her office. He said the fees from those two cases would total less than $15,000.

Hutton also said that Davis and DiGrazia have received no special treatment because of their campaign donations.

Davis said he thinks the charges against him and DiGrazia are politically motivated. “Why would the district attorney’s office wait almost four years, almost until the statute of limitations expired, and then make these charges?” he asked. “I think it’s because an assistant district attorney ran against Mrs. Hutton in that 1986 race and lost.”

Ted Johnson, who is an assistant district attorney, opposed Hutton in her 1986 bid for reelection.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Connie Johnson denied Davis’ charge about political motivation in the case.

“This case was investigated because of a citizen’s complaint, and I can tell you that the citizen was not Ted Johnson,” she said.