St. John to Face Trial in Theft of Funds : Hearing: She is charged with taking $178,000. Judge says the case against Mayor Bradley’s ex-business associate appears weak.

A Municipal Court judge Tuesday ordered a longtime associate of Mayor Tom Bradley to stand trial on charges that she bilked a city-funded Los Angeles-Africa trade task force out of $180,000, but warned prosecutors that “it would be very difficult at trial to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Juanita St. John is charged with felony theft of $178,000 from the UCLA-based Task Force for Africa/Los Angeles Relations, which St. John headed. The city, largely at Bradley’s behest, gave the task force nearly $400,000 between 1985 and 1989.

St. John, a San Marino resident, also will be tried on charges that she stole $5,000 as treasurer of an anti-genocide group and filed false state tax returns from 1985 through 1987. St. John has denied wrongdoing and charged that her prosecution is politically motivated.

Municipal Court Judge David Doi ordered the trail after a lengthy preliminary hearing, but added that he believes the high-profile case appeared weak.

“My only determination is that the (prosecution) is entitled to a trial,” Doi told Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen S. Licker. “I would suggest it would be very difficult at trial to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt.” Doi, who heard extensive testimony and reviewed voluminous records during the much-delayed hearing spanning three months, did not elaborate.

Outside the courtroom, St. John’s lawyer, Victor Sherman, said Doi’s comments show that the case should be dropped. “I think he said, based on the evidence, there’s no possible way you can win in front of a jury. . . . Don’t waste (taxpayer) funds” on a trial,” Sherman said.

But Licker said “all of the evidence isn’t necessarily presented” at a preliminary hearing. The case “wouldn’t have been filed if we didn’t think we could get a conviction,” he said.

The task force scandal has figured prominently in the ethics controversy surrounding Bradley. The mayor and St. John were partners in a real estate venture at the same time that Bradley was lobbying to fund the program. Bradley sold his interests earlier this year. Also, St. John hired Bradley’s daughter at the task force and Bradley hired St. John’s daughter at City Hall.

Outlining his case, prosecutor Licker on Tuesday said St. John, who has a history of personal financial problems, stole task force money “to fund her private debts (and) daily activities.” He cited large, irregular withdrawals from task force accounts immediately after annual city grants would arrive each year.

Licker argued that St. John at times “laundered” her use of task force monies. In August, 1985, St. John wrote a $21,000 task force check to “cash,” Licker said in court papers. She used the check to purchase a $21,000 cashier’s check at one bank and then went to a second bank to purchase another $21,000 cashier’s check made payable to her mortgage lender, Licker said.

Such actions were “rationally inconsistent” with St. John’s claim that she merely took salary and reimbursements due her, Licker said.

But Sherman insisted that most of the money St. John allegedly stole was part of a $75,000-a-year salary she gave herself. Members of a Bradley-appointed task force advisory board testified St. John did a good job and was given a free hand in the group’s financial affairs, he noted. “She earned her pay. They trusted her and she set her salary,” he said.

Sherman said St. John was at most guilty of sloppy bookkeeping. “So what? Where’s the fraud? There isn’t any,” Sherman said.

Licker said that a $75,000 salary was nearly twice what St. John was legally authorized and that the claim to such a salary was “an attempted cover-up” of improper activities.

St. John’s arraignment was set for Dec. 12.