Moore Extortion Trial Gets Off to a Bitter Start

A federal jury impaneled Tuesday to decide extortion charges against former Compton City Councilwoman Patricia Moore got an early taste of the bitter slugging match that awaits them.

In opening remarks to the jurors, Assistant U.S. Atty. John M. Potter denounced Moore as a corrupt politician who betrayed her constituents and lined her pockets with thousands of dollars in illegal payoffs.

Not only did she extort money for her own enrichment, but she also advised undercover FBI agents how much money would be required to bribe other elected officials, including a congressman and members of the Compton City Council and the school board, Potter said.

In turn, chief defense lawyer Thomas A. Mesereau Jr. accused the FBI of carrying out a “nasty, immoral campaign of entrapment,” using an undercover operative who became Moore’s lover and who stole her money.

Mesereau leveled a broadside at Potter, accusing the prosecutor of intentionally misleading a federal grand jury and tricking Moore into an earlier agreement to plead guilty.

Moore, 47, is charged with extorting $62,400 from two Compton businesses that had projects needing City Council approval. She served on the council from 1989 to 1993.

Most of the alleged payoffs came from Compton Energy Systems, which was promoting construction of a controversial $250-million garbage-to-energy conversion plant in Compton. The rest was allegedly extorted from Compton Entertainment, which wanted to establish a card casino in Compton.

At the time, Compton Energy Systems’ president, John Macardican, was working as an undercover operative for the FBI in an investigation of official corruption in Compton. He wore a concealed recorder, and his office was equipped with hidden cameras.

“With your own eyes and ears, you will see and hear the defendant extorting payoffs,” Potter told the jurors, referring to the centerpiece of the government’s case against Moore. Twenty alleged payoffs were recorded on videotape and audiotapes.

The prosecutor also promised the jury testimony from Moore’s alleged “bagmen.”

He identified them as Basil Kimbrew, her former campaign manager, now a member of the Compton school board; Joseph Spraggins, a contractor who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and is cooperating with the government; and George Osepian, a vice president of Western Waste Industries, which has an exclusive trash hauling contract in Compton and allegedly paid Moore $500 to $1,000 a month in cash.

Finally, Potter said, the prosecution will offer as evidence Moore’s confessions to FBI agents and to a federal grand jury in 1994 after she had negotiated a deal to cooperate with the government in exchange for leniency.

Moore’s defense attorney told the jury Tuesday that she was tricked into a plea agreement with the government, which she subsequently withdrew, setting the stage for the current trial.

In his remarks to the jury, Mesereau made it clear that the defense intends to focus its counterattack on the role of Stan Bailey, a mysterious FBI undercover operative who, like Moore, is African American.

He said that Bailey, a twice-convicted felon, showed up at Moore’s office in 1990 as a lobbyist for Macardican’s project. Bailey and Moore soon became romantically involved and traveled twice to Mexico, he said.

Taking advantage of their relationship, Mesereau said, Bailey talked Moore into loaning him money and then deserted her.

He told the jury that some of the payments Macardican gave to Moore were reimbursements for the money Bailey allegedly stole.

He also said that Moore supported the energy project once her concerns about environmental hazards were allayed. “There was no vote to sell, because she always believed in that project,” he said.

“The government took your tax dollars and gave it to an ex-con to have a sexual relationship with Ms. Moore,” Mesereau said. Before the trial concludes, he promised, the defense will expose “the most vile, sordid and immoral campaign of entrapment you ever saw.”

Moore was snared in the same investigation that led to the conviction last year of Rep. Walter Tucker III (D-Compton). He was found guilty of taking $30,000 in bribes while he was Compton’s mayor in 1991 and 1992 and is serving a 27-month prison sentence.