Jury Hears Hunter Statement About Illegal Hedgecock Funding

Jurors in the fraud trial of Nancy Hoover Hunter on Tuesday heard an edited version of a statement that Hunter signed as part of a plea-bargain agreement in the illegal funding of the mayoral campaign of Roger Hedgecock.

In the statement, read by Assistant U. S. Atty. Stephen Clarke, Hunter said, “Jerry Dominelli and I supplied a substantial amount of money to Tom Shepard & Associates, understanding that the funds would be used to pay employees who were working almost exclusively on Mr. Hedgecock’s campaign.”

The jury heard most of the statement. Two phrases, one of which contains Hunter’s admission of guilt in the 1984 case, were omitted on the orders of U. S. District Court Judge Earl B. Gilliam.

Clarke read the three-page statement, dated April 18, 1986, without a witness on the stand. Prosecutors had the statement admitted as evidence because they feel it bolsters the government’s case against Hunter on the charges of tax evasion. She is also accused in multiple charges of commodities fraud, mail fraud and making false statements to a federal agency.

Because Hunter acknowledges in the statment that the California campaign laws limit personal contributions to $250, Hunter’s investment in Tom Shepard & Associates was a sham, Clarke said.

Tom Shepard, whose firm managed the 1983 Hedgecock campaign, testified last month that Hunter invested more than $340,000 in his firm, although most of the money came from checks drawn on the J. David firm.

Gilliam’s ruling allowing prosecutors to introduce the statement as evidence will cause both Hunter and Hedgecock to take the witness stand, said defense attorney Richard Marmaro.