Shepard Says Hunter Wasn’t in on Campaign

Nancy Hoover Hunter did not know anything about the illegal funding of the mayoral campaign of Roger Hedgecock, according to Tom Shepard, who testified Friday in Hunter’s fraud and tax evasion trial.

“It would be inconceivable for me to talk to her about (Hedgecock) because she had nothing to do with it,” Shepard said.

Shepard, whose firm managed Hedgecock’s 1983 campaign, emphatically denied that his firm, Tom Shepard & Associates, was set up in January, 1982, specifically to manage the Hedgecock campaign.

Although the firm received a substantial amount of money from checks drawn on J. David & Co. accounts, Shepard said he “never had any doubts” that the money belonged to Hunter.

Shepard, who was testifying under immunity, pleaded guilty in 1986 to a misdemeanor count of avoiding California campaign contribution laws related to the Hedgecock scandal. Hunter also pleaded guilty to a felony count stemming from the Hedgecock affair, but the judge in the trial is not allowing that conviction to be revealed to the jury.

Hunter is standing trial on 234 counts that allege she participated in the huge Ponzi scheme conducted by J. David (Jerry) Dominelli. When the J. David investment house collapsed in February, 1984, 1,500 investors had lost $80 million.

Hunter’s knowledge of the firm is one link to two of her tax evasion charges because she reported to the IRS that she lost money she invested in Tom Shepard & Associates.

The trial resumes Thursday.