Moriarty Lawyer Doubts Client Can Get Fair L.A. Trial

The new defense lawyer for W. Patrick Moriarty, accused of federal fraud and public corruption charges in connection with the licensing of a City of Commerce poker club, said Thursday that he doubts whether the Orange County businessman can get a fair trial in Los Angeles because of what he called prejudicial pretrial publicity.

The comment by attorney Jan Lawrence Handzlik, five days before the scheduled start of Moriarty’s public corruption trial in Los Angeles federal court, raised the prospect that an attempt will be made by Moriarty to request a change of venue.

“I’m not certain that anything can overcome the prejudicial pretrial publicity involving Mr. Moriarty and this case,” said Handzlik, who replaced Sacramento lawyer Donald H. Heller as Moriarty’s attorney Feb. 1 when Heller withdrew on grounds that he could no longer represent Moriarty because of a problem with legal ethics.

Survey of Jurors

Handzlik and Chief Assistant U.S. Atty. Richard E. Drooyan have been working together in recent days to prepare a mutually acceptable questionnaire that could be used to determine if prospective jurors have been prejudiced by publicity about the case and a widening federal probe into other allegations of corruption involving Moriarty.

Handzlik said Thursday that such a questionnaire “may help alleviate” the publicity factor, but added that if it becomes clear that an impartial jury cannot be selected in the case, he will consider asking that the trial be switched to another city.

Moriarty, 53, was indicted Nov. 8 on federal fraud and corruption charges along with Las Vegas gambling figure Frank J. Sansone, 47, and four former City of Commerce officials in connection with the licensing of the California Commerce Club.

The former Commerce officials were accused of conspiring to grant Moriarty and Sansone an operating license for the poker club in exchange for hidden ownership shares. Those indicted included former Mayor Ricardo Vasquez, 54; former Councilmen Robert Eula, 55, and Arthur Loya, 56, and Phil Jacks, 59, the city’s former director of economic development.

Expected to Testify

The former Commerce officials have pleaded guilty in connection with the case and are expected to be among the 14 government witnesses who will be called to testify against Moriarty and Sansone, who have maintained not-guilty pleas since the original indictment.

Sentencing of the former officials has been postponed until after the trial of Moriarty and Sansone, which is scheduled to start Tuesday in front of U.S. District Judge William J. Rea.

Drooyan, outlining the government’s case in the greatest detail yet, said in a trial memorandum Thursday that it began as a bribery scheme by three of the former Commerce officials.

He said that Eula, Loya and Jacks met in August, 1981, with Sansone and Morris Jaeger, an official of the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, to discuss the operation of a poker club in Commerce. Sansone and Jaeger “expressed an interest” in the idea of operating a card club in Commerce, Drooyan said, and the officials “expressed a desire for some financial reward in exchange for the license.”

It was not until March, 1982, that Eula and Jacks contacted Moriarty to secure financing for the card club, Drooyan’s memorandum continued. By then, according to Drooyan, the Commerce officials had already worked out preliminary details of the hidden ownership scheme with Sansone and Jaeger.

The Las Vegas group was having financial problems in putting the poker club deal together, however. Moriarty was sought out by the Commerce officials to help resolve the money problems, according to Drooyan’s memorandum.

City Council Action

According to the government, Moriarty was introduced to Sansone by Horace Kelly Towner, a friend of Jacks, to avoid any direct involvement at that stage by the city officials, and the financial difficulties were resolved.

On April 5, 1982, the Commerce City Council awarded a card club license to the group headed by Sansone.

In addition to promises of secret shares in the club, according to the prosecution document, Moriarty paid Eula, Loya and Jacks a total of $6,000 after the April 5 vote in exchange for their efforts and “in order to ensure that he could continue to do business in the City of Commerce and that the California Commerce Club would continue to have a license.”