Trash Hauler Named in Compton Scandal

Former Compton City Councilwoman Patricia Moore, currently facing federal extortion charges, confessed to government agents in 1994 that she received monthly payoffs from Los Angeles County’s largest garbage hauler, according to a court document.

Moore reportedly told of meeting on the 10th of each month with a representative of Western Waste Industries who would give her an envelope containing $500 to $1,000 in cash.

The politically influential company, based in Torrance, holds exclusive long-term contracts with numerous cities in Southern California, including Compton, to pick up commercial or residential garbage.

Moore’s contact at Western Waste Industries was not identified in the court document, nor was there any suggestion of what she allegedly did in return for the money.

The document was filed by the U.S. attorney’s office late last year in response to a motion by Moore’s defense to suppress her confession.

Whether that confession will be admitted is still being contested in pretrial proceedings before U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall.

Moore’s lawyer, Thomas A. Mesereau Jr., said the defense takes the position that she never confessed to taking bribes from Western Waste and, even if the government contends that she did so, her comments are inadmissible because of prosecutorial misconduct.

Assistant U.S. Atty. John M. Potter, lead prosecutor in the Moore case, declined to comment on the court document, nor would he say whether Western Waste is under investigation.

At Western Waste headquarters, Chuck Jelloian, vice president for government and public affairs, said he was authorized to say only that “an employee of Western Waste has talked to the government about the Pat Moore matter.”

He refused to elaborate, but added that the company does not believe it is a target of any federal investigation.

According to the government document, Moore gave her first detailed confession during a debriefing session with two federal agents March 26 and 27, 1994, at the Doubletree Hotel in San Pedro.

The meeting grew out of a plea agreement that Moore and her attorney had signed earlier that day after being shown secretly recorded videotape footage which allegedly showed her receiving bribes from another company.

In exchange for leniency, Moore promised to cooperate with an ongoing FBI and Internal Revenue Service probe of official corruption in Compton.

“Defendant acknowledged to FBI Special Agent Kevin Adley and IRS Special Agent Carl Knudson that she had engaged in corrupt practices as a City Council member,” the document said in a summary of the Doubletree Hotel meeting.

It said Moore specifically admitted taking payoffs from Compton Energy Systems, which was seeking permission to build a $250-million waste conversion plant in the city, and from Western Waste Industries.

Moore, a Compton City Council member from 1989 through 1993, “stated that on the 10th day of each month she would meet with a representative of Western Waste Industries to receive [an] envelope which would contain between $500 and $1,000 in cash,” the document said.

She also confessed June 7, 1994, to taking bribes from Compton Entertainment Inc., which was trying to establish a card casino in Compton, according to the document. Compton Entertainment has denied knowledge of any payoffs.

The payments from Compton Energy Systems, whose owner was working secretly with the FBI, and from Compton Entertainment figure in the 25-count indictment currently pending against Moore.

This, however, is the first time that Western Waste Industries has been identified as a source of alleged payoffs to Moore.

The firm, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is about to be sold for $525 million to USA Waste Services of Dallas, creating the third largest trash collection and disposal company in North America.

A combined shareholders meeting has been set for May 7 in Dallas to ratify the acquisition, which also must be approved by the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department’s antitrust division.

Although its stock is publicly traded, Western Waste Industries essentially is controlled by the family of Kosti Shirvanian, who founded the company in 1955 and still serves as chairman.

Widely regarded as an aggressive competitor, Western Waste has long been dominant in Southern California, swallowing smaller companies and often edging out larger national firms for municipal and private contracts.

It operates six landfills, three transfer stations and five recycling centers and hauls trash in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Colorado and Arkansas. In 1995, the company reported revenues of $271 million.

In 1989, Western Waste Industries pleaded no contest to felony charges and paid a $1-million fine for plotting to eliminate competition and inflate commercial trash hauling prices and for illegal dumping of hazardous waste. In that case, brought by the Los Angeles County district attorney, one of its officers was sentenced to 45 days in jail.

From the beginning, the criminal case against Moore has taken a stormy and tortuous path.

As part of the original plea agreement, Moore consented to work undercover for the FBI, wearing a concealed transmitter and tape recorder, which she admittedly did for a while.

She also was expected to be a prosecution witness against U.S. Rep. Walter R. Tucker III, who was caught in the same FBI-IRS probe of official corruption in Compton.

Before the start of the Tucker trial, however, Moore changed her mind and, with a new lawyer, persuaded Judge Marshall to allow her to withdraw her guilty plea on grounds that she was not adequately advised by her former legal counsel.

Moore also contended that she was subjected to “emotional, physical and sexual abuse” at the hands of a government informant who became her lover, and that prosecutors tried to coerce her to testify against Tucker. The congressman was convicted late last year of extortion and income tax fraud and is awaiting sentencing.

The government has denied Moore’s claim of coercion and abuse, maintaining that she knowingly and voluntarily agreed to cooperate and was never threatened.

After withdrawing her guilty plea to one count of extortion and one count of income tax fraud, Moore was indicted again. This time, she was charged with 23 counts of extortion and two counts of income tax fraud.

Earlier this week, Moore’s defense team asked Judge Marshall to dismiss the current case on a variety of grounds, including their contentions that she was targeted because she is African American and that prosecutors threatened her.

The judge postponed hearings on those accusations until later this month.