Ex-San Diego Mayor Wins Retrial on Perjury Charges

Former San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock, forced from office after being convicted of hiding campaign contributions, won a new trial today from the state Supreme Court on his 12 perjury convictions.

The court also set aside Hedgecock’s remaining conviction, for conspiracy to violate campaign disclosure laws, to let a San Diego judge consider allegations that a bailiff improperly influenced jurors by talking about the case and providing them with liquor.

In 1985, Hedgecock was convicted of failing to disclose more than $350,000 in contributions to his successful 1983 campaign for mayor. The money allegedly came from principals in J. David & Co., an investment firm that later collapsed. Prosecutors said some of the contributions violated local election laws.

Hedgecock’s one-year jail sentence and $1,000 fine have been stayed during his appeal. He now works as a San Diego radio talk show host.

Hedgecock, 44, said today that he is confident the ruling “is going to be the beginning of setting the record straight on this pretty unfortunate episode in my life and the life of San Diego.”

The former mayor had contended that he was guilty of no more than bad bookkeeping and claimed that he was the target of a vendetta by Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller.

Hedgecock said a retrial would be “a horrifying waste of resources (and) time.” Miller’s office had no immediate comment on the ruling or on whether a retrial would be sought; a news conference was scheduled for later in the day.

The court voted, 4 to 3, to overturn the perjury convictions on the ground that then-Superior Court Judge William Todd told the jury that the alleged deliberate errors and omissions in Hedgecock’s campaign finance reports were “material,” or substantial enough to support perjury charges.

Whether the inaccuracies were material was a factual question to be decided by the jury, the Supreme Court opinion by Justice Joyce Kennard said.