Key Witness Says He Paid 2 Marshals to Keep U.S. Contract

The Santa Ana owner of a security firm, painting a detailed portrait of an alleged cash-for-influence scheme in the federal court system, testified Thursday that he paid thousands of dollars in cash and favors to two U.S. marshals to secure and hold onto a lucrative government contract.

Joseph Rydzewski, 33, ran a 200-employee security firm in Orange County that, between about 1982 and 1984, received some $400,000 from the local district of the U.S. marshal’s office to aid in the seizure and guarding of evidence and protection of government witnesses.

He was able to get and keep the no-bid, oral contract, he claimed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana on Thursday, by making payments of more than $7,000 to two U.S. marshals from Orange County who controlled the contract and by doing financial favors worth perhaps thousands more.

“The bottom line--it was for the marshal’s contract,” Rydzewski said in explaining why he made the repeated payments. “That’s basically why I did it, so there would be no upset of the apple cart.”

His four hours of testimony came in the second day of the trial of Joseph Gieniec, 43, of Santa Ana, and Gordon Tornberg, 59, of Tustin, both of whom had worked at the federal courthouse in Los Angeles and are now facing several counts of accepting illegal gratuities from Rydzewski.

In cross-examination late Thursday, defense attorney James L. Waltz sought to point out discrepancies in Rydzewski’s accounts of his business dealings and to show that he had been coached by government prosecutors on some tactics--such as speaking directly to the 12-member jury.

But the bulk of the defense’s interrogation of the government’s star witness will come today, when Rydzewski again takes the stand. The defense has maintained that the money that changed hands was a reflection of friendship, not corruption.

Waltz has also suggested that Rydzewski struck a deal with prosecutors for his testimony. Rydzewski, who ran a company called Lyons International Security, has already pleaded guilty to charges arising from the alleged scheme and has been cooperating with authorities.

Rydzewski, under questioning from Assistant U.S. Atty. Bruce E. Reinhart, said that, in addition to making straight cash payments to Gieniec and Tornberg, he also gave loans for which he never expected to be reimbursed, hired their friends and relatives and did other financial favors.

Rydzewski testified that he hired Tornberg’s wife as a guard, paid her slightly more than other employees with similar experience, and tolerated her tardiness and what he described as problems on the job.

“I wasn’t going to fire the marshal’s wife,” he said. “There wasn’t much I could do.”

The motive, he said, was the U.S. marshal’s contract, the result of what was apparently an unusual decision by local officials to seek help from the private sector for the growing task of seizing evidence in criminal investigations and protecting witnesses.

Not only was the contract profitable, Rydzewski said, but it was also a prestigious inroad to other work in the security industry. “I just really fell in love with that contract. I would do anything to keep it.”

But that attitude changed in late 1984, Rydzewski testified, because Gieniec--whom he portrayed as the organizer of the scheme--”kept on badgering me for money. I just didn’t want to continue doing what I was doing--giving money for him to be quiet. . . . It was just getting to be too much.”

Rydzewski testified that, in a conversation around that time, Gieniec told him: “If I don’t have $4,000 by tomorrow, the whole house of cards is going to fall.” He said he refused to pay the money, hung up the phone and did not speak to Gieniec again for four years.

It was not until 1987, after a tip from a security firm employee, that authorities began to unravel details of the alleged scheme, prosecutors have said. That led to charges in late May against Rydzewski, Gieniec and Tornberg.