GO SIMON
Bill Simon will be on KSFO560 at 810 AM PT
Posted on 09/13/2002 7:28:52 AM PDT by snopercod
Bill Simon, the Republican nominee for governor, spoke with CaliforniaJournal recently for a story to be published in the magazine's special election issue this October. In that story the governor and a broad arrayof other state leaders and politicians examine the current race for governorand the state of politics in California today. Here, California Journal offers a timely sample of the coverage that will appear in its October special issue.
SACRAMENTO-Bill Simon said in a recent interview with California Journal that some of the jurors who found hisfamily company guilty of fraud earlier this summer were Democrats who may have been influenced by his Republican campaign for governor.
"It could be possible," he said. "Occassionally, there are outlandish jury verdicts. Was this a politically motivated verdict?I don't know. But it is not founded on the facts."
Simon spoke with the magazine before a Los Angeles judge Thursday overturned the jury's unanimous finding that William E. Simon and Sons defrauded a former business partner, who also turned out to be a convicted drug dealer.
Campaign officials said the candidate's suspicions about the jury were based on interviews with jurors conducted by attorneys for William E. Simon and Sons after the verdict.
Attorney John Morrissey told California Journal that the jurors said their decision was not influenced by politics. Buthe also said they had seen campaign television commercials by the time the trial started in July. And he said they identified one juror who was active in Democratic politics and had strong feelings about the court case.
"In many ways, she apparently drove the conversation,"he said. "How big a part of [the verdict] it is, I don't know."
Morrissey did not reveal the identity of the juror and he said the lawyers did not interview her. But during the juryselection process, he said she described herself as a "politically active" college graduate student. He said she had experience on ballot measure campaigns and she assisted a college professor working on the recent Democratic reapportionment process.
Morrissey was not involved in the jury selection for the case and he did not know why the individual juror was not excused by attorneys for the Simon firm. He speculated that the lawyers may havereached their limit on how many prospective jurors they were allowed torule out.
Morrissey also said his notes from the jury selection process did not identify how many jurors were registered as Democratsor Republicans, which he said is a customary question during a trial likethis one.
While the jurors said their decision was not influenced by politics, Morrissey said, "for whatever reason … [jurors] saw this as big guys versus little guys-and they saw Simon and Sons as the big guy."
Last July, the jury found that William E. Simon and Sons concealed from the founder of a Southern California payphone company its plans to borrow heavily and expand the company so it could go public. The plan failed and the company was taken over by banks, costing the partner, Edward Hindelang, $23 million. The jury ordered Simon's firm to pay $78 million.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant overturned the jury verdict because he said Hindelang "defrauded" Simon's firm and other investors by not disclosing his previous drug conviction and the fact that federal authorities were attempting to recover drug money, some of which may have been used to found the phone company.
Simon's suspicions about the jury were not the only political fingers pointed at this court case, however.
Campaign aides to Governor Gray Davis reacted to the judge's decision by noting that Chalfant was appointed by former Republican Governor Pete Wilson and that he and his wife and father have been contributors to GOP campaigns, including Wilson's. Garry South, chief strategist for Davis, stopped short of saying the decision was politically motivated.
"I'll let you decide," he said.
"Simon Suspects Democratic Jurors Tainted Fraud Verdict"
But when we read the article, what we discover is this:
"It could be possible," he said. "Occassionally, there are outlandish jury verdicts. Was this a politically motivated verdict?I don't know. But it is not founded on the facts."
Simon never said that he suspected politics played a part in the verdict. When directly asked about it, he basically said "anythings possible". This was a set up question designed to create a misleading headline.
Not surprised. The media are making sure that this is common knowledge.
Yes. Top Right. Top left was GWB. The editorial was about Iraq and how we should use war only as the last resort because we have to be afraid of how they will retaliate against us! The BEE still does not accept the fact that war has already been declared against US!
If this article is correct - and I'll believe it is until I see evidence to the contrary - the Judge found
1) Simon was believeable in his claim that he entered into a multimillion dollar deal with a man without doing a background check which would have immediately revealed that man as a convicted felon.
2) Simon's concealment of his plan to charge 1.5 million was "sharp" business practice but not illegal. Inotherwords, it was quite legal to defraud Hindelang.
No wonder the Left despises the legal system.
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