IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
The second day of motion hearings in a prominent public corruption case continued Thursday. The day ended with the judge deciding to postpone his ruling regarding a prosecution request and a proposed evidentiary hearing until Monday.
San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith heard both sides of the arguments in the case Thursday morning, in the latest round of hearings for defendants in the Colonies Crossroads development case. The judge was expected to rule in regards to the San Bernardino County District Attorney office’s request for an amendment to the 2011 grand jury indictment against the four defendants: developer Jeffrey Burum, former Supervisor Paul Biane, former assistant assessor Jim Erwin and Mark Kirk, former chief of staff to Supervisor Gary Ovitt.
Burum’s defense attorney, Stephen Larson, argued that the prosecution’s motion to amend the original indictment against his client and the co-defendants should be denied on the basis that the grand jury that heard the case in 2011 was misinformed. Larson stated that the examples of legal precedent that were presented to the judge were not applicable because in all of those cases, “There was a properly instructed and properly evidenced grand jury. That is simply not here in this case.”
Larson argued that so-called victims in the case, County officials when the alleged misconduct took place including Auditor-Controller Larry Walker, Supervisor Josie Gonzalez, former Supervisor Dennis Hansberger, and former County CAO Mark Uffer, should have conducted their own investigations or alerted law enforcement sooner than they did. Prosecutors maintain that the alleged victims did not have enough knowledge to identify any illegality or conduct an investigation at the time. Much of the argument on both sides of Thursday’s hearing dealt with the definition of factual knowledge, as opposed to “suspicions or hunches.”
After a noon recess, Larson intimated that the prosecution should shift its focus away from the statute of limitations in light of the judge’s decision Wednesday. “We’re not arguing about the statute of limitations anymore,” he said. “We’re now arguing whether or not they can amend the indictment.”
In prior deliberations, Judge Smith stated he would rule in favor of the defense demur, but that he leaned toward allowing prosecutors to amend their indictment. But, before recessing Thursday afternoon, Judge Smith told both sides that he was postponing his ruling until Monday to give the arguments more thought. “I thought I was ready to rule on this issue,” he said, “but the arguments have brought out some additional factors.”
If Judge Smith rules against prosecutor’s request to amend the indictment, another 12 charges will be dismissed.
The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office alleges that Burum paid four $100,000 bribes to county officials to facilitate a $102 million settlement between Colonies Partners, the developer of Colonies Crossroads, and the county.
The case will resume Monday morning at 10:30.
