Judge orders re-filing of charges in illegal campaign contributions case

09:01 AM PDT on Saturday, October 4, 2008

Richard K. De Atley
The Press-Enteprise

Three perjury charges must be re-filed in the illegal campaign contribution and perjury case against Inland auto dealer Mark Leggio and three codefendants, a judge ruled Friday.

San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Bryan Foster agreed with Leggio attorney Thomas J. Warwick that the counts did not sufficiently describe the alleged acts, which focus on the filing of a state campaign contribution disclosure form.

Prosecutors said Leggio, a major donor to local Republican candidates, made campaign contributions exceeding the legal limit from 2002 through 2006. A 37-county indictment returned last June says more than $50,000 in illegal campaign contributions were laundered.



Silvia Flores / The Press-Enterprise
Perjury charges against Mark Leggio lack adequate specificity, a judge rules.

Leggio donated the maximum amount to a candidate and sent over more money by having colleagues make the contributions and then illegally reimbursing them, the indictment alleged.

The four defendants -- Leggio, two employees of his auto agencies and one former employee -- have not yet entered pleas. Grand jury testimony said all three employees denied to an investigator that they had been reimbursed.

The challenged perjury charges stem from Leggio's filings of state-required campaign contribution reports. The language says Leggio stated as true in the document a "matter which he knew to be false," but does not give details.

"It says the document is wrong -- but it doesn't say how it is wrong ... it doesn't say anything," Warwick said of the three perjury counts. "The law requires specificity," he said during the hearing.

Warwick declined comment afterward.

Deputy Attorney General Michael J. Cabral said outside court the changes would be made to the three counts. "We just need to allege exactly what it was, that they had made contributions in somebody else's name," he said.

Foster denied defense motions that attacked the other charges in the 37-count indictment. He set Nov. 5 for the next hearing in the case.

The defendants can file more challenges, called demurrers, against the amended indictment.

Among the recipients of the suspect donations were current state Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, and 2006 Assembly contender Brenda Salas, the mayor of Banning.

Others include Bill Leonard, a former legislator who received contributions for his successful bid for the state Board of Equalization in 2002; Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia; Alan Wapner, an Ontario city councilman who got money in a failed run in 2004 for the 61st Assembly District seat; and Elia Pirozzi, a Rancho Cucamonga Republican who is now a San Bernardino County judge.

None of the candidates is suspected of being in on the alleged plot, and authorities have suggested no motive.

Leggio is the part owner of Mark Christopher Auto Center in Ontario, Mountain View Chevrolet in Upland and Diamond Hills Auto Group in Banning.

Reach Richard K. De Atley at 951-368-9573 or rdeatley@PE.com

District attorney ends bid for reelection

Redlands Daily Facts, 2002-03-15
By Chris Nguyen Staff Writer

District Attorney

Dennis Stout is giving up his bid for a third term as the county's top prosecutor.

Stout announced his withdrawal from the race for district attorney a week after he finished second in the primary election, behind Deputy District Attorney Mike Ramos, who won 42.7 percent of the vote.

Stout won 35.3 percent of the vote, and a third candidate, defense attorney Frank H. Guzman, garnered 21.9 percent.

Both Ramos and Guzman had attacked Stout's handling of the investigation into corruption in the county.

Stout and Ramos were headed for a runoff in November, and while Stout has publicly stepped out of the race, state law requires that his name remain on the ballot.

In a prepared statement, Stout said further pursuit of the position he's held since January 1995 would be futile.

"After much soul searching last weekend, and analyzing the results of the primary election, I arrived at the conclusion that further prolonging the district attorney's race would be pointless," he said.

"The voters have given me the message that they desire change," he said. "With that in mind, I am withdrawing from the campaign today and will no longer expend time or effort in seeking re-election to a third term."

Ramos said Stout's decision is appropriate.

"Mr. Stout saw the writing on the wall," he said.

While Stout plans to stop campaigning, Ramos said he will not.

"We need to continue to go out and make contact with people," Ramos said. "It will be nice that it won't be an adversarial campaign."

Ramos said Stout will help familiarize him with the district attorney's position by including Ramos in top-level management meetings.

"I have been preparing myself for this job for years," Ramos said.

County supervisors said Stout's decision is honorable and wise.

"He and his office have been through a lot, and this is the right thing to do," Supervisor Bill Postmus said.

Supervisor Dennis Hansberger also said Stout was right to step aside, but added that he had expected Stout to fight harder to be re-elected.

In the months leading up to the March primary, Stout trailed Ramos in fund-raising.

Ramos brought in five times more campaign money than Stout did between January and June of last year, according to county records. Ramos collected $78,413 to Stout's $15,619.

While both men are Republicans, Ramos this week was endorsed for the nonpartisan post by the county's three Democratic state legislators.

Stout's backers included State Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga and police officers associations from Ontario and San Bernardino.

Stout's achievements as district attorney have been overshadowed by a scandal involving former Rialto Councilman Ed Scott, who ran against Supervisor Jerry Eaves in 2001.During his campaign, Scott told members of a task force consisting of the Sheriff's Department, the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles that top district attorney's officials offered to help him defeat Eaves, whom they were investigating.

In January 2000, authorities began recording Scott's conversations with Stout, Assistant District Attorney Dan Lough and Chief Investigator Barry Bruins.

An internal investigation concluded that the conduct of Lough and Bruins was inappropriate but not criminal. Stout demoted both men after transcripts of the conversations were made public.

Lough and Bruins have alleged that the investigation, which they claim was politically motivated, destroyed their careers. They also criticize Stout for refusing to oppose release of the transcripts.

Brulte, a longtime supporter of Stout, said the District Attorney's Office made a mistake, but Stout took the blame for it.

"It's not news when the district attorney does his job well. It is news when the DA makes a mistake," Brulte said. "People in politics understand that one mistake can wipe out 100 huge successes."

In October, Lough and Bruins sued the county, Stout and nine other defendants for defamation and violating their civil rights.

On Thursday, Lough and Bruins said Stout led a successful administration but they criticized his handling of the Eaves case.

"He's come to the realization that the community will not tolerate that kind of behavior," Scott said.

Stout's administration also has been excluded from the corruption task force because of information leaks before the scandal over the District Attorney's Office's involvement with Scott.

Those leaks led authorities to question whether the District Attorney's Office should participate.

Ramos said he plans to make the office more involved with the ongoing federal and local corruption investigation in San Bernardino County.

"We're going to work together," Ramos said.

Staff Writers Andrew Silva and Felisa Cardona contributed to this report.District attorney ends bid for reelection.

D.A. Dennis Stout Admits Errors, Drops Role in Probe

San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Dennis Stout acknowledged Wednesday that he violated his own ethical standards and made “errors in judgment” when he secretly aided the political opponent of a county supervisor he was investigating.

Consequently, Stout has stepped down from the prosecution of San Bernardino County Supervisor Jerry Eaves, one of several officials tangled in a pervasive corruption and bribery scandal. State Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer has agreed to take over the case against Eaves, starting this morning, Stout announced Wednesday.

“As an elected representative of a law enforcement agency, the public should expect much of me,” Stout said in a statement. “They should expect that I would avoid even the appearance of bias or favoritism in the conduct of my office. And in this matter, I let the public down.”

Stout, however, remained defiant in an interview hours after releasing that statement.

An Ontario native who was a prosecutor for 17 years and has been San Bernardino County’s district attorney since 1994, Stout pointed out that his office has not been accused of violating any laws. He pledged to run for reelection next year and scoffed at demands from critics that he resign.

“I don’t listen to people like that,” he said. “The only people I care about are the voters of this county and the people that work with me. I think we run a very good office here.”

Court documents released in February indicated that Stout and two top lieutenants secretly aided political candidate Ed Scott last year, when he was challenging Eaves for a position on the county Board of Supervisors. Stout and Scott are Republicans and Eaves is a Democrat–the only Democrat on the five-member board.

Scott, though he had been Stout’s friend and ally for years, cooperated with FBI and Sheriff’s Department officials in an investigation into the district attorney’s conduct. During his campaign against Eaves–which he lost–Scott secretly tape-recorded his conversations with the district attorney’s office. The U.S. attorney’s office will decide whether charges will be filed.

Transcripts show the district attorney’s chief investigator Barry Bruins told Scott that “Dennis doesn’t mind us helping you. In fact, you know, he likes the idea.”

For Stout, though, Eaves was not merely a political rival–he was also the target of a corruption investigation, and Stout’s office was prosecuting the case.

In charges loosely connected to bribery and kickback schemes that led seven county officials and business executives to enter guilty pleas in 1999, Eaves was accused of taking gifts from companies seeking county contracts.

Investigators say Eaves did not report the gifts on disclosure forms, and he was indicted last year on two felony perjury charges and 17 misdemeanor misconduct charges.

Eaves’ supporters say the charges against him have been motivated by politics. Eaves, who did not return phone calls Wednesday seeking comment, has pleaded not guilty, and three of the misdemeanor charges have been dropped.

Stout said he made his decision to withdraw from the Eaves investigation after seeking a “thorough review” of his office’s conduct–a probe that included legal and ethical analyses from the attorney general’s office and other district attorneys’ offices. His office also reviewed more than 700 pages of transcripts of recorded conversations.

Stout declined to release the review of his conduct, calling it part of the ongoing Eaves investigation, though he did say he found the report “disturbing and personally embarrassing.”

And, though he does not believe the case against Eaves has been damaged by the recordings, Stout conceded that his office’s relationship with Scott should have ended once last year’s campaign got underway.

“Since Ed Scott was the political opponent of the target of an investigation that my office was conducting, it was ill-advised and improper for us to continue this relationship,” he said.

Lockyer agreed, said Gary Schons, the senior assistant attorney general who runs the department’s criminal division in San Diego.

Starting this morning, at an evidentiary hearing in the Eaves case, Deputy Atty. Gen. Scott Taylor, who works out of the department’s San Diego office, will assume prosecution of the case.

Stout “explained to the attorney general what his concerns were with continuing the prosecution,” Schons said. “We looked at it, and we agreed with him that he had legitimate concerns about his office continuing with the case.”

— UNPUBLISHED NOTE —

Jerry Eaves is also referred to as Gerald Eaves or Gerald R. Eaves in other Los Angeles Times stories.