Moore Found Guilty of Corruption Charges

Former Compton City Councilwoman Patricia Moore was convicted in federal court Wednesday of extortion and income tax fraud, capping a five-year FBI probe of political corruption in that city.

Moore, a fiery critic of police abuses against blacks, maintained from the outset that she was illegally entrapped, the victim of a government plot to “take down” outspoken African American politicians.

But jurors put little stock in her claim, jury foreman Richard Carlson said.

“As a group, we didn’t see it as a viable defense,” he told reporters.

Moore was caught in the same undercover investigation that snared former U.S. Rep. Walter R. Tucker III (D-Compton), now serving a 27-month sentence at Lompoc federal prison for extortion and tax fraud.

She was found guilty on 13 of 23 extortion counts, all felonies, and two counts of failing to file income tax returns, which are misdemeanors. The jury, which deliberated for five days, acquitted her on six extortion counts and deadlocked on four others, for which mistrials were declared.

Carlson said the panel convicted Moore on the counts for which there was clear evidence that she asked for money and acquitted her or deadlocked on those counts in which the evidence was fuzzy.

Moore, 47, looked on impassively as the verdicts were read by a clerk in U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall’s Los Angeles courtroom.

But as she left, one arm draped around the shoulder of her granddaughter, Moore spoke bitterly about the outcome.

“The government can hurt and destroy your life,” she said. “They plan schemes that are very horrible against people. And it’s hard to fight that when you are poor, when you’re black and when you have no money.”

Moore’s defense lawyer, Thomas A. Mesereau Jr., also expressed disappointment with the jury’s decision. “Unfortunately, we think the government is going to accept this verdict as a green light to do this to another poor community,” he said.

But U.S. Atty. Nora Manella hailed the verdict, saying it “puts to rest” Moore’s claim of a racist government plot against her. Manella hugged and congratulated the prosecutors who tried the case, John M. Potter and Mary Carter Andrues.

Under federal guidelines, Moore can expect a prison term of three to five years, according to prosecutors. Sentencing is set for Jan. 6.

Moore, who served on the Compton City Council from 1989 to 1993, was accused of extorting $50,100 from Compton Energy Systems, which was seeking permission to build a $250-million waste-to-energy conversion plant in the city, and $12,334 from Compton Entertainment, which needed council approval to open a card casino.

What Moore did not know was that Compton Energy Systems’ president, John Macardican, had been recruited by the FBI as a cooperating witness in its corruption probe.

During 20 meetings with Macardican and undercover FBI agents Robert Kilbane and Gary Will, Moore was captured on hidden cameras and voice recorders receiving payoffs in amounts ranging from $120 to $10,000.

In exchange for the money, the government charged, Moore voted to grant Compton Energy Systems an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city and engaged in influence peddling on its behalf with other city officials.

While the hidden cameras rolled, Moore also counseled the undercover agents as to how much it would cost to bribe other public officials. Tucker, then Compton’s mayor, would need $100,000, while the other members of the council and the school board could be bought for $5,000 to $10,000 each, she advised. Her price tag for then-U.S. Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton), who wielded considerable influence in the city, was $30,000 to $40,000.

There was no evidence during the trial that any of the named officials, aside from Moore and Tucker, received any bribes.

Moore testified that she convinced herself that she was “entitled” to the money because of her relationship with Stan Bailey, an ex-convict who was recruited by the FBI to help in the Compton investigation.

Bailey, who had worked in other undercover roles for the FBI, showed up in Moore’s City Hall office in 1990, professing to be a public relations representative for Compton Energy Systems. According to Moore, that first encounter blossomed into romance and eventually Bailey proposed marriage.

Bailey, subpoenaed by the defense as a hostile witness, denied any romantic entanglement with Moore, though he admitted traveling with her to Rosarito Beach, Mexico, without approval from his FBI handlers.

During their relationship, Moore said, Bailey charged expenses to her account and solicited money from her friends for a trade conference that never got off the ground. Finally, she testified, he jilted her, but not before luring her to his apartment, slipping knockout drops into her 7-Up and sodomizing her.

After being dumped by Bailey, Moore said she fell into the clutches of Macardican, who promised to make good on her financial losses to Bailey and then drew her into a carefully scripted scenario that made it appear she was soliciting bribes for supporting the waste-treatment facility.

Moore testified that she was trying to recoup about $15,000 that she and her friends lost as a result of their dealings with Bailey, though she acknowledged demanding far more from Macardican and his money men.

But prosecutors dismissed her entire story about Bailey as a fabrication designed to divert the jury from the damaging FBI tapes.

In closing remarks to the jury, Assistant U.S. Atty. Andrues argued that the defense had produced “not a single shred of evidence” to show that Moore and her friends had incurred any debts because of Bailey’s spending.

Moore testified that she cashed a personal check for $2,000 at her bank and repaid one friend who lost money to Bailey, but an IRS agent who examined her bank records took the stand and said no such transaction ever occurred.

Carlson, the jury foreman, said it was apparent to the panel that Moore had lied, a factor that weighed on the jurors when they considered her credibility.

The prosecution also challenged Moore’s story of rape, noting that she never filed a police report and never sought medical attention, although she testified she was bruised and bleeding from the alleged attack.

The FBI’s investigation of Compton was launched in 1989. Its stated goal was to root out corrupt politicians and corrupt businesses holding city contracts.

Since then, only Tucker, Moore and Joseph Spraggins, an alleged bagman for Moore, have been prosecuted. Spraggins pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax fraud and testified against Moore.

None of the businesses that allegedly made payoffs have been charged with any crime. Executives of three such companies, Murcole Disposal, Compton Entertainment and Western Waste Industries, were granted limited immunity for their testimony. The FBI’s probe of Western Waste was recently reactivated, however.

In 1994, Moore confessed to federal agents that she received $500 to $1,000 in cash every month from George Osepian, a Western Waste vice president.

An IRS criminal investigator who took part in the lengthy interview with Moore said she also disclosed that Western Waste founder Kosti Shirvanian and his sister, Savey Tufenkian, the company’s secretary-treasurer, were aware of the payments.

The confession was given after Moore negotiated a deal with the government for leniency. In exchange for a chance to plead guilty to just two criminal counts, Moore promised to testify against Tucker and assist in the FBI’s investigation.

Moore wore a concealed tape recorder during telephone conversations with Shirvanian and Osepian, but she pulled out of the pact several months later and was subsequently indicted on 25 criminal counts.

Although Western Waste was not charged in the Moore case, prosecutors introduced Moore’s confession to demonstrate that she was predisposed to taking bribes. Such proof was necessary to counter defense claims of entrapment.

Other damaging testimony about Western Waste came from Moore’s longtime campaign manager, Basil Kimbrew, who said he served as a conduit for a $10,000 cash payment from Shirvanian to Moore shortly after her 1989 election.

Moore voted to grant two rate increases and a contract extension to Western Waste, which has an exclusive contract to haul commercial waste in Compton.

Kimbrew also testified that he served as a conduit for payoffs to Moore from Compton Entertainment, which was seeking a permit from the City Council to open a card club in the city. Unlike the payoffs from Compton Energy Systems, there were no hidden cameras recording the transactions.

According to Kimbrew, Moore agreed to absent herself or abstain when the council voted on the proposal. He said she could not afford to actually vote in favor of the card club because of her previous vocal opposition to casino gambling in the city.

At Moore’s direction, Kimbrew testified, he instructed the casino backers to write checks to him for phony consulting services and he then cashed the checks and gave the proceeds to Moore.

The jury voted to convict on one count involving Compton Entertainment, voted not guilty on another and deadlocked on a third.

Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story.