Mecham Made ‘Innocent Mistake,’ Defense Tells Jury

PHOENIX —  Former Gov. Evan Mecham’s criminal trial opened Thursday with his lawyer telling jurors that Mecham’s failure to report a $350,000 campaign loan was at worst “an innocent mistake.”

However, prosecutor Barnett Lotstein said in his opening statement that Mecham and his brother, Willard, intentionally broke the law when they kept the loan confidential.

“It was no oversight, no mistake,” said Lotstein, an assistant attorney general. “Willard Mecham prepared the report. Evan Mecham signed it. Evan Mecham swore to its content.”

Justices Won’t Intercede

The Arizona Supreme Court refused to intercede in the case just 90 minutes before opening statements began in Maricopa County Superior Court. The defense wanted the charges dismissed or returned to the state grand jury, contending that the panel had been misled by the state attorney general’s office.

Mecham faces up to 22 years in prison if convicted on all six counts of perjury, willful concealment and filing false documents. Willard Mecham, his brother’s campaign treasurer, faces three similar counts and up to 9 1/2 years in prison if convicted.

Defense attorneys for both Mechams insisted that the failure to report the loan was merely a mistake.

“At its very worst, there was an innocent mistake in reporting a loan,” said the former governor’s lawyer, Michael Scott. “This is a case of gross prosecutorial overreaching.”

The Republican governor was removed from office on April 4, when the state Senate convicted him of two unrelated impeachment counts. He was elected in 1986 and took office in January, 1987.

Case Involves ‘Truth’

Lotstein told the jury the case involves “truth and the lack of truth, integrity and the lack of integrity . . . (and) an intentional violation of the law.”

“This case is about hiding Barry Wolfson as the source of the loan,” the prosecutor said, referring to the Tempe developer who made the loan to Mecham’s 1986 campaign.

Mecham has contended the $350,000 loan was properly reported on his financial report as part of a $465,000 lump sum that was listed as a contribution from himself.