Wong gave gifts, Hahn aide says

A former Los Angeles deputy mayor testified Thursday that ex-city commissioner Leland Wong gave him Lakers tickets and paid for massages that included sexual favors while pressuring him to help a Taiwanese shipping firm obtain a lucrative city port lease.

But Troy Edwards, one of former Mayor James K. Hahn’s top aides, said he did not know that Wong was on the payroll of the shipping conglomerate Evergreen and believed that the former airport commissioner was acting only in his capacity as a city official.

“He was a commissioner for us and he was on our team,” Edwards said.

The statements marked key testimony in the prosecution’s bribery case against Wong, who is the only city official to face charges stemming from the “pay to play” scandals that dogged Hahn’s final year as mayor.

Prosecutors say that while Wong was serving as airport commissioner and later on the Water and Power Commission, he received $100,000 from Evergreen through his Hong Kong bank account in exchange for exerting influence on the company’s behalf at City Hall.

Sitting on the edge of his seat and blinking frequently during his three-hour testimony, Edwards testified that during his time as deputy mayor, Wong gave him the basketball tickets and treated him to massages at a downtown hotel spa where masseuses sometimes provided sexual favors.

Edwards said Wong aggressively sought his help to secure a favorable deal for Evergreen on its lease at the Port of Los Angeles.

“I knew that Mr. Wong wanted Evergreen to be happy,” said Edwards, who testified under promise of immunity from the prosecution that his statements will not be used against him.

Prosecutors in court showed Edwards and the jury tense e-mails exchanged by the two men over several months.

“Where the hell are you? What’s the status on Evergreen?” Wong wrote in one July 2003 e-mail. “Troy, you know, your reputation sucks,” Wong wrote in an e-mail later that year, adding that he had “lost face” with Evergreen.

“I am pissed and tired of being treated like crap while I fight the fight,” Edwards wrote in one reply. “I do not work for you,” he wrote in another.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonlyn Callahan asked Edwards whether Wong was “pressuring you to make a deal with Evergreen.”

“He expressed his frustration more than once that this should happen,” Edwards said. “He repeatedly called me and pushed me.”

A rival of Evergreen was later awarded the lease.

Wong, who is facing 21 felony counts, is also accused of conflict of interest, perjury, filing false tax returns and grand theft by embezzlement from his other employer, Kaiser Permanente. Prosecutors allege that Wong improperly billed the massages he and Edwards received to Kaiser.

Edwards testified that when he told Wong about the sexual favors, Wong did not appear surprised and said “Yeah, that happens.”

Outside of court, Deputy Dist. Atty. Max Huntsman suggested that although prosecutors couldn’t prove that the gifts were direct compensation for Edwards’ help, the timing suggested a link.

“Evidence shows that the massages were going on at the same period that the defendant was being paid by Evergreen,” he said.

Defense attorneys have said Wong was legitimately receiving the funds for consulting services.

Janet Levine, Wong’s attorney, grilled Edwards on his e-mail to a colleague shortly after he received a subpoena to appear before a state grand jury in 2004, in which he urged: “Make sure you have a delete protocol for your e-mail. As well as the file cabinets.”

Outside court, Levine said she was attacking Edwards’ credibility and trying to demonstrate that his testimony about Wong’s conflict of interest was “baseless.”

Edwards served as Hahn’s chief fundraiser during his first mayoral campaign, after which he was appointed as deputy mayor with no previous experience in office, to act as a liaison to Los Angeles World Airports, the Port of Los Angeles and the DWP.

He is expected to resume testimony Monday.

Hahn lost to Antonio Villaraigosa in his bid for a second term in 2005, and political observers have attributed the loss in part to the pay to play scandal.

Testifying during two days this week, Hahn said he had no knowledge Wong was being paid by Evergreen.

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victoria.kim@latimes.com