Ex-Compton Official Allowed to Retract Guilty Plea : Courts: Former Councilwoman Patricia Moore was misled by her lawyers, judge rules. Prosecutors say they will seek more indictments.

A U.S. District Court judge on Thursday allowed former Compton City Councilwoman Patricia Moore to withdraw her guilty pleas to extortion and failing to file an income tax return.

Federal prosecutors immediately said they will seek indictments against Moore on at least 19 additional counts of felony extortion, as well as the count to which she had pleaded guilty in November when she agreed to cooperate in an ongoing investigation of alleged political corruption in Compton.

Moore, who gained national prominence as an outspoken advocate of African American issues while serving on Compton’s council from 1989 to 1993, expressed relief at the judge’s decision.

“I’m anxious to get on with the process and prove my innocence,” she said, repeating her claim that the charges against her were part of a government conspiracy to discredit African American elected officials.

As part of the plea arrangement, Moore had admitted extorting $9,100 in 1991 from a company that had sought to build a solid waste incinerator in Compton and failing to file a tax return for 1992.

It had been widely speculated that Moore, who had agreed to serve in an undercover capacity as part of the investigation, would be a key prosecution witness in the federal bribery trial of Rep. Walter R. Tucker III (D-Compton). However, Moore insists that she never intended to testify against Tucker. The congressman’s trial is scheduled for Sept. 5. He has proclaimed his innocence.

Prosecutors said they have hundreds of hours of videotape and audiotape that show Moore extorting $50,100 from representatives of the company on 20 separate occasions in 1991 and 1992.

Assistant U.S. Atty. John M. Potter said during Thursday’s hearing that the government may seek still more indictments against Moore that he said involve alleged bribes she received from other companies, including a firm that paid Moore a regular monthly sum during her tenure on the council.

“She knew what she did . . . when she reached out her hand and grabbed money that, as a public official, she was not entitled to,” Potter said.

Before granting the request, Judge Consuelo B. Marshall questioned Moore extensively about why she had testified under oath in November that she had entered into the plea arrangement willingly as well as provide specific testimony about how she confessed to having violated the law.

Moore responded that her testimony last November was based on what a former attorney “told me to say, not on what I believed was right. . . . He told me I should get it over with quickly and not make an enemy of the government.”

In granting the change of plea, the judge concluded that neither of Moore’s previous two attorneys had adequately explained whether it was in her best interests to plead guilty to the charges.

Moore also contends that she was subjected to “emotional, physical and sexual abuse” at the hands of a suspected government informant, and that prosecutors tried to coerce her to testify against Tucker, who is accused of extorting money from the company that wanted to build the trash-to-energy plant.

During Thursday’s hearing, Potter denied the allegations, accusing Moore of spreading lies about the government’s conduct to hide her own guilt. Prosecutors did not object to the change of the plea, saying they were perfectly prepared to bring Moore to trial.