Moreno Trial Opens in Clash Over Words and Intentions

Four years after he accepted envelopes stuffed with cash from an FBI informant, Santa Ana City Councilman Ted R. Moreno’s political corruption trial opened Thursday with two vastly different explanations for what happened.

Assistant U.S. Atty. John Hueston described Moreno as a power-hungry politician who offered to approve a gas station’s beer and wine permit in exchange for $31,000 in political contributions.

But Moreno’s attorney said the councilman was entrapped into taking the money as part of an overzealous FBI operation. Moreno refused to accept the payments for months, the defense contends, and finally did so reluctantly, as he bowed his head in shame and said, “I hate this.”

At issue is whether Moreno and several political supporters sought to gain a majority on the Santa Ana City Council in 1996 by shaking down local businessmen.

They were cloak-and-dagger meetings, in which Moreno talked in code, scribbled notes to avoid suspected “bugs” and took a businessman into a walk-in freezer to discuss business, said Hueston.

“This case is about a politician who in his words wanted to own Santa Ana . . . a politician who betrayed the public’s trust by putting his vote up for sale,” Hueston said.

Prosecutors Allege Council Power Play

According to Hueston, Moreno used the cash donations to help the campaigns of two City Council candidates he needed to win a majority on the divided council. Moreno was reelected in 1996, but the candidates he supported were narrowly defeated.

Moreno’s lawyer, Dean Steward, offered a contrasting account of the transactions between the councilman and gas station owner Victor Koshkerian. He told the jury that Koshkerian, working for an FBI salary, hounded Moreno with bribe offers until he finally caved in and accepted.

In order to convict Moreno of extortion, the jury must find that he was not entrapped.

The evidence will show Koshkerian first approached Moreno with the cash-for-votes offer, not the other way around as Hueston alleged, Steward said. Moreno accepted Koshkerian’s money only after six months of pressure, which will be apparent on the secret FBI video and audiotapes, the attorney contended.

“For this six-month period, you’re going to hear Mr. Koshkerian constantly pushing Mr. Moreno,” Steward said.

During that time, Moreno made tape-recorded statements such as “I don’t want to take the cash,” Steward said.

When he finally accepts the money, his attorney said, Moreno can be seen on a videotape softly shaking his bowed head in shame.

“I hate this. I’m not used to doing this,” Moreno can be heard saying on the FBI tapes, Steward said.

Former councilman Tony Espinoza and failed council candidates Roman Palacios and Hector Olivares have already pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with the alleged scheme. Palacios is expected to testify during Moreno’s trial.

A federal grand jury indicted the four politicians in 1998 after a two-year investigation. In addition to extortion, Moreno faces money laundering, mail fraud and other charges.

Hueston said he will prove Moreno also sought and accepted illegal donations of gold coins from another businessman. He said the evidence will show Moreno solicited donations from Koshkerian after a “chance meeting” in the men’s room at Santa Ana city hall.

“You will never get that beer and wine license with the current Santa Ana City Council,” Moreno told Koshkerian, according to Hueston.

FBI tapes show Moreno was hardly an entrapment victim, the prosecutor said. Rather, he openly solicited the money he thought it would take to win the four-member majority on the City Council, Hueston said.

“The four of us will get in if it’s my last breath,” Moreno said during a taped meeting, the prosecutor said. “You will get what you wanted.”

Moreno, 33, is in the final months of the four-year term he won during the 1996 campaign. He walked out of the courthouse holding hands with his wife. He declined to comment.

The opening statements followed a heated jury selection process in which Steward and Hueston accused one another of excluding jurors because of their race.

Steward raised the allegation first, accusing federal attorneys of excusing one juror because she is Latino.

“I believe this is a pattern of trying to eliminate Hispanic jurors,” Steward said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Jean A. Kawahara noted that the juror was the only Hispanic prosecutors had excluded during three days of jury selection.

Hueston added, “The only part that’s been selecting jurors on the basis of race is the defense.”

The jury panel chosen for the case appears to include four Hispanics, U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor concluded.

“If the government’s purpose is to delete people of one ethnicity, they have failed miserably,” he said, concluding the prosecution did not try to exclude minorities from the jury.