St. John Failed to Disclose Pay, Tax Investigator Says

Juanita St. John failed to report to the state income tax board more than $150,000 in funds she took from a city-funded Los Angeles-Africa trade task force, a state investigator testified in court Friday.

State Franchise Tax Board investigator Horace Pitts said some task force funds were shifted to personal checking accounts controlled by St. John from 1985 to 1987, but none of the money was reported as income on her state tax returns.

The testimony at a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Municipal Court undermined St. John’s contention that most of the $178,000 she is charged with stealing from the nonprofit task force was actually pay due her as executive director, said the prosecutor. The 58-year-old San Marino resident claims her salary averaged about $75,000 per year, but city auditors and police contend that is nearly double the amount authorized.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen Licker told reporters outside the courtroom that Pitts’ testimony showed St. John’s “tax returns don’t reflect a salary of $75,000,” they show less income.

St. John’s attorney, Victor Sherman, dismissed that analysis as “one-sided” and said the defense next week will show St. John legally dispersed task force funds and properly reported her income.

A friend and former business partner of Mayor Tom Bradley, St. John is charged with felony grand theft from the Task Force for Africa/Los Angeles Relations, as well as theft from an anti-genocide group. She also is charged with three counts of filing false state tax returns. St. John has denied any wrongdoing.

Bradley pushed to create and fund the task force, which has figured prominently in the ethics controversy that has rocked his administration. St. John, who said she met the mayor years ago while raising funds for his campaign, hired the mayor’s daughter for a time after the task force received city tax dollars. The city attorney is suing St. John and the task force to recover nearly $400,000 the city claims was misspent.

The preliminary hearing before Municipal Court Judge David Doi will determine if St. John should stand trial on the criminal charges, which carry a possible prison sentence of more than seven years.

Pitts, the state investigator, testified that banking records show St. John repeatedly made personal withdrawals from task force accounts. For example, about $72,000 in task force funds was taken out by St. John in 1987 but never declared as income on her state taxes, Pitts said. Altogether, St. John owes more than $6,000 in unpaid state taxes, he said.

Prosecutors have said that about $31,000 in task force funds went to pay Bradley and St. John’s other partners in a Riverside real estate investment. Investigators say there is no evidence that Bradley knew he was paid with task force money.

Throughout the preliminary hearing, which will continue next week, Sherman has argued it is irrelevant how St. John spent the money because she was entitled to it. He cited city-approved task force budgets that included total salary expenses of approximately $75,000 per year. He said that because St. John was the only employee of the task force for several years, she could draw out the entire amount.

Licker, however, pointed to one proposed task force budget which showed the salary allocation was to pay both St. John and a secretary.