Judge Allows Use of Tape Segments in Cisneros Trial

Bolstering the government’s case against former Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros, a federal judge said Tuesday that he plans to allow prosecutors to present crucial segments of recorded phone conversations to try to show Cisneros conspired to conceal payments he made to his former mistress.

Ruling from the bench after two weeks of pretrial hearings, U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin rejected defense arguments that all 88 conversations secretly tape-recorded by Linda Jones had been “tampered with” and were inadmissible.

Jones has admitted copying all of the tapes to omit portions she deemed unfavorable to her. But Sporkin said the government would be entitled to play key segments for jurors that contain Cisneros’ voice and seem relevant to the case against him.

Despite defense lawyers’ attacks on the validity of the recordings, associate prosecutor James Fleissner told Sporkin that “we have witnesses who will testify to the authenticity of segments” jurors hear.

Cisneros’ trial is scheduled for September. His December 1997 indictment charged that he misled FBI investigators who were checking into his background after President Clinton nominated him to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

An indictment brought by Independent Counsel David Barrett alleged that Cisneros lied in telling investigators he paid Jones, then Linda Medlar, only about $60,000 after their 1988 breakup, when actually he had paid her more than $250,000 over a period of years.

According to prosecutors, Cisneros, a former mayor of San Antonio, was concerned that a truthful answer might kill his nomination to the Cabinet.

Cisneros, now president and chief executive officer of Univision, a Spanish-language television programmer based in Los Angeles, has pleaded not guilty to the 18 counts of lying, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Because Jones has admitted telling a series of lies to investigators, her tape recordings are the most crucial evidence prosecutors have against Cisneros and defense attorneys had mounted a fierce legal attack to keep them out of his trial.

Defense lawyer Barry Simon told the court that prosecutors are “not entitled to put on tampered, inauthentic evidence.” Jones admitted in court that she had doctored and recopied the tapes to omit “private matters” discussed between them as well as some threats she made to Cisneros to persuade him to continue paying her $3,000 to $4,000 a month after their breakup.

In recent days, Bruce Koenig, a government tape expert and former FBI analyst, testified that there are many gaps on the three dozen recordings that prosecutors want to use.

“You don’t know what was on the gaps?” Simon asked Tuesday.

“That’s correct,” Koenig replied.

Simon argued that because of the gaps, jurors would not understand the context in which Cisneros made seemingly incriminating statements.

However, in response to questions from Sporkin, Koenig said he found no evidence that Jones spliced together portions of different tapes to form statements Cisneros never made.

Sporkin said prosecutors should be entitled to use “a discrete statement in the voice of the defendant, if it’s a clear-cut statement, a clear-cut admission.”