Moore Says She Felt Entitled to Funds She Allegedly Extorted

Former Compton Councilwoman Patricia Moore testified Thursday that she convinced herself she was “entitled” to the money she is accused of extorting from backers of a proposed waste treatment plant in the city.

During four hours of cross-examination in her federal extortion trial, Moore continued to heap blame for her actions on an undercover FBI operative who she says romanced and jilted her.

Moore contends that she and her friends were owed $15,000 by Stan Bailey, an ex-convict who was secretly working for the FBI in its investigation of official corruption in Compton.

But under questioning by Assistant U.S. Atty. John M. Potter, Moore acknowledged that her demands for cash from Compton Energy Systems far exceeded those losses.

Secretly recorded audiotapes and videotapes played for the Los Angeles federal court jury show Moore soliciting as much as $100,000 from the project’s backers. She actually received $50,100, according to the prosecution.

“I convinced myself that I was entitled to it,” she told the prosecutor, saying her failed romance with Bailey left her emotionally and financially drained.

Bailey introduced himself to Moore in 1990 as a representative of Compton Energy Systems, which was seeking permission to build a $250-million waste-to-energy conversion plant. Compton Energy Systems’ owner, John Macardican, was also working in an undercover role with the FBI.

Taking the stand in her own defense Wednesday, Moore portrayed herself as a hapless victim of entrapment by Bailey, who racked up debts in her name, and by Macardican, who offered to reimburse her through a scheme that she said was designed to look like extortion.

In the cross-examination Thursday, Moore admitted taking steps to conceal the payments she received from Macardican and two undercover FBI agents who were posing as financiers for the waste-treatment project.

She said she was simply following “advice and counsel” given to her by Macardican.

“What the tapes don’t show were my conversations hundreds of times with Mr. Macardican that weren’t recorded,” Moore added. The government says all of Macardican’s conversations with Moore were secretly recorded or monitored by FBI agents.

Potter also pressed Moore about her tape-recorded demands that her payments be funneled through Joseph Spraggins, described by prosecutors as her “bagman.” Moore said she was trying to find work for Spraggins, a longtime friend.

Spraggins has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and income tax fraud in the case and is awaiting sentencing. He testified against Moore earlier in the trial.

Asked why she had warned Macardican to stop talking on the telephone about making cash payments to her, Moore replied, “I was just paranoid like most African Americans in my community about what you all are up to.”

Moore also acknowledged that she failed to disclose getting money from Compton Energy Systems when she voted to grant the company an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city.

“I didn’t disclose the payments, Mr. Potter, because of everything you all had put on me through Stan Bailey,” she said.

Challenging her testimony that she had supported the project from the outset, Potter confronted her with transcripts of FBI tapes that show her threatening to withhold her support unless she was paid.

The former councilwoman said she was only trying to “manipulate” Macardican and his financial backers “because they were manipulating me.”

Moore also denied that she was serious when, on the tapes, she put price tags on how much it would cost to bribe other elected officials to ensure approval of the waste-conversion project.

“That was strictly my manipulation to get the money I deserved,” she said.

Potter also pressed Moore for any records showing she had reimbursed her friends with money she got from Compton Energy Systems for their losses in Bailey’s investment scheme.

Moore said all of her records had been destroyed in the 1992 riots, but she recalled going to the bank and cashing a personal check for $2,000 to reimburse one friend.

Later in the day, Kent Greenberg, an IRS agent who has worked on the case, testified that a review of Moore’s bank records showed only one $2,000 check, but that it was written in 1990, before she ever met Bailey.

The prosecution also sought to cast doubt on Moore’s testimony that she was beaten and sodomized by Bailey before he deserted her. She says he apparently drugged her during a visit to his apartment.

Noting her testimony that she woke up the next morning bruised and bleeding, Potter asked why she did not seek medical treatment.

He also referred her to a taped conversation she had with Macardican several months later in which she scoffed at the woman who said she was raped by boxer Mike Tyson.

“She was not raped. Let’s be serious,” Moore told Macardican. “Do you know what rape is? I mean it’s emotional and physical trauma. That girl went out and kicked her legs higher than your head the next day.”

“Even though you were a rape victim, you chose to joke about another rape victim, didn’t you?’ Potter asked.

But under questioning later by her lawyer, Moore said she had investigated the case and concluded that Tyson was framed.