St. John Convicted on Embezzlement Count : City Hall: Jury fails to reach verdict on main charge that friend of mayor stole from task force on Africa.

A longtime friend and business associate of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley was convicted of felony embezzlement and tax evasion charges Thursday, but a mistrial was declared on a central allegation that she stole $178,000 from a city-funded Africa trade group.

After five days of deliberations, a Superior Court jury found Juanita St. John guilty of stealing $5,000 from a UCLA-based anti-genocide group, which she served as treasurer. St. John also was convicted of two felony counts of filing false state tax returns involving $125,000 in unreported income. The jury could not reach a verdict on a third tax evasion charge.

The jury deadlocked, 8 to 4, leaning toward conviction, on a charge that St. John pilfered funds from the nonprofit Task Force for Africa/Los Angeles Relations. St. John was executive director of the task force, a pet project of Bradley that figured prominently in the ethics controversy surrounding the mayor.

St. John could face up to four years in prison when she returns to court next month for sentencing.

Jurors told reporters that they could not convict St. John of embezzling task force funds because many jurors felt that the city had failed to provide adequate oversight of the $400,000 entrusted to St. John between 1985 and 1989. “The fact that there was nobody to watch her, because everybody trusted her, is not her fault,” said juror Fardin (Dean) Valipour, a drugstore manager from Lawndale, who voted not guilty.

“She was given money and told to have a good time and she did,” said juror Denise Welvang, a North Hollywood pharmacist. “If you give someone a blank check and say fill it out, what do you expect?”

Nonetheless, Welvang said she and the majority of jurors believed St. John was guilty of theft from the task force. “She had a fiduciary duty to account for the money” and did not, Welvang said.

As the verdicts were read by a court clerk, St. John, 59, of San Marino, grasped the arm of one of her attorneys and grimaced. She displayed little emotion and appeared perplexed by the jury’s split decision. “How can it be one and not the other?” she asked as her attorney hustled her past reporters.

St. John, who steadfastly maintained her innocence, complained to The Times on Wednesday that the two-year legal battle had been a “nightmare,” compounded by the serious illness of her husband.

Bradley’s name was never far from the case and St. John, a political fund-raiser for the mayor, called him as a defense witness. The mayor testified that he knew little about the task force finances and had no reason to question St. John’s administration of city money.

A longtime friend of St. John, Bradley helped secure city funding for the task force. As a board member, he attended the group’s meetings and was a partner with St. John in a Riverside real estate investment.

St. John hired Bradley’s daughter immediately after city funding began flowing to the task force. And Bradley hired St. John’s daughter to work for his City Hall office.

Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner disclosed last year that Bradley received some of the money allegedly stolen by St. John, when she used $31,000 from the task force to cover payments to partners in the Riverside investment. There was no evidence that Bradley knew he received task force money, Reiner said.

While Bradley was never charged with wrongdoing, he was criticized by City Atty. James K. Hahn and other city officials two years ago for creating an appearance of conflicts of interest through his ties to the task force.

But jurors said Thursday that the politics surrounding the case were not a factor in their deliberations, nor did they hold the mayor responsible for the task force problems. The city should have better monitored task force spending, said juror Russ Iwane, a parcel post driver from Whittier, “but that is not the mayor’s job.”

Bradley was out of town and his office declined to comment.

The case hinged on a series of large withdrawals St. John made for herself from task force accounts between 1985 and 1989. The prosecution alleged that St. John, who had a history of financial problems, used the task force as her “personal piggy bank” to pay her home mortgage and other debts.

St. John said she was entitled to the funds because she drew a $75,000-a-year salary--nearly twice what the prosecution maintained she was entitled to collect. Testimony in the trial showed the task force was informally run and St. John’s salary was never officially approved.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen Licker said the 8-4 vote for conviction on the main count showed most of the jury “didn’t buy (St. John’s) story.” Licker said a decision would be made soon on whether to retry St. John on the undecided counts.

Victor Sherman, St. John’s attorney, said the verdicts “make no sense” and said St. John would appeal the convictions.

Deliberations were intense in the highly publicized case, jurors said. “The room was so divided,” said David Dry, a West Los Angeles postal carrier who voted guilty on all counts. “Some people . . . felt passionately that all of the money . . . was taken. One woman actually started crying because she felt that this woman was getting away with stealing money.”

Leo Kuper, founder and now vice president of International Alert, the nonprofit, anti-genocide group from which St. John allegedly stole $5,000 as a volunteer treasurer, said the case was “very disturbing” and “painful,” but jurors reached “a correct decision.” The International Alert case developed during the investigation of the task force, which was also based at UCLA.

Jurors said they convicted St. John on the International Alert embezzlement charge because St. John bore clear responsibility and control of the funds.

The three tax counts involved failing to report income taken from the task force and International Alert. State tax officials said St. John failed to report $53,000 in income in 1985, at least $12,000 in 1986 and $72,000 in 1987. Jurors said they deadlocked on the charge involving 1986 because the evidence was insufficient and the allegedly unreported income was relatively small.

At City Hall, officials noted that new funding and auditing controls were imposed on city-funded community groups as a result of the task force controversy. Councilman Michael Woo, who championed some of the reforms, said the jury’s actions were “a sad end to a tragic story.”

Benjamin Bycel, executive director of the new Ethics Commission, said: “If there wasn’t a real conflict of interest (by Bradley), there was sure a heck of a perception of a conflict of interest. That is the kind of thing in the future we hope we can educate public officials to stay clear of.”