Moore’s Corruption Trial in Hands of Jury

The federal corruption case against former Compton City Councilwoman Patricia Moore went to the jury Monday with the issue of entrapment dominating closing arguments by opposing lawyers.

In his final remarks to jurors, defense attorney Thomas A. Mesereau Jr. accused the government of carrying out a “manipulative, intrusive and diabolical” plot to entrap Moore and “scam the people of Compton.”

But Assistant U.S. Attys. John M. Potter and Mary Carter Andrues told jurors that Moore’s claim of entrapment was a fabrication designed to deflect the jury from the evidence arrayed against the 47-year-old defendant.

“Believe your eyes. Believe your ears,” said Potter, referring to many hours of secretly recorded videotapes and audiotapes that allegedly show Moore soliciting and receiving cash payments from representatives of Compton Energy Systems, which was seeking council approval to build a $250-million waste treatment plant.

Moore, who served on the City Council from 1989 to 1993, is accused of extorting $50,100 from Compton Energy Systems, whose president, John Macardican, was cooperating with the FBI’s probe of official corruption in Compton.

The former councilwoman also is accused of extorting $12,334 from Compton Entertainment, which was seeking permission to open a card club in Compton.

When the defense claims entrapment, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not induced to act illegally and that the accused was predisposed to commit the crime.

Calling Moore the victim of “one of the worst entrapment scams ever perpetrated,” Mesereau aimed the brunt of his argument Monday at the role of Stan Bailey, an ex-convict and an undercover FBI operative who introduced himself to Moore in the fall of 1990 as a public relations representative of Compton Energy Systems.

Bailey testified during the trial that his assignment was strictly to repair a breach between Moore and Macardican. But the defense contends that Bailey romanced her, chalked up expenses to her account, defrauded her friends and then jilted her, but not before slipping her knockout drops and sodomizing her in his apartment.

In her closing argument, prosecutor Andrues said the defense had offered “not a single shred of evidence” to support its claim that Moore had incurred debts as a result of Bailey.

She called the rape story “not credible,” noting that Moore never filed a police report and never sought medical attention, though she testified to being bruised and suffering from bleeding.

The prosecutor also questioned why Moore had failed to call as a witness a friend seated in the courtroom who purportedly treated her after the alleged assault.

Mesereau contended that after being dumped by Bailey, Moore fell into the clutches of Macardican and two undercover FBI agents, Robert Kilbane and Gary Will, who posed as financiers of the waste treatment plant.

He said Macardican promised to make good on Moore’s financial losses to Bailey and then drew her into a carefully scripted scenario that made it look as if she were soliciting bribes.

But Andrues argued that it was Moore who dictated both the amounts and the terms of the payments, insisting that they be made in cash and delivered through a conduit who “on his momma’s grave and in a courtroom would never tell.” Indeed, the alleged conduit, Joseph Spraggins, did talk. He testified against Moore after a plea agreement with the government.

Andrues also accused Moore of “upping the ante” in her extortion demands, solicitations that ranged from a $3,000 payment at the outset to a demand for $100,000 nearly a year later.

Twenty times Moore took payoffs from Compton Energy Systems, Andrues said, and “never once did this defendant express any qualms, never once did this defendant express any reluctance” about the payments.

Attempting to show predisposition, the prosecutor cited a confession Moore allegedly made to FBI and IRS agents in 1994 in which she told of receiving monthly bribes from Western Waste Industries, which has an exclusive contract to haul commercial waste in Compton.

Andrues also pointed to the testimony of Moore’s former campaign manager, Basil Kimbrew, who said he delivered to Moore $10,000 in cash from Kosti Shirvanian, founder and chairman of Western Waste, shortly after she was elected in 1989. Moore voted to grant Western Waste two rate increases and a contract extension, according to trial testimony.

Kimbrew also testified during the trial that he served as a conduit for payoffs to Moore from Compton Entertainment. Unlike the payments from Compton Energy Systems, those payments were not surreptitiously recorded.

Mesereau called Kimbrew’s testimony “thin as a reed” and noted that Kimbrew had been granted limited immunity by the government.

The defense attorney portrayed Moore as a victim of coercion when she confessed to federal agents and to a federal grand jury in 1994 about taking payoffs from Compton Energy Systems, Compton Entertainment and Western Waste Industries. Moore was never charged with taking bribes from Western Waste.

Moore’s confessions were made during a time when she was abiding by a plea agreement with the government. In return for her cooperation in the FBI’s probe, prosecutors promised to charge her with one count of extortion and one count of income tax fraud. After several months, however, Moore pulled out of the deal, withdrew her guilty plea and was subsequently indicted on 25 counts.

Scoffing at her claim of coercion, Potter noted that Moore, as well as two previous defense lawyers, gave sworn testimony that she had never been threatened or coerced.