LOS ANGELES (CN) – After a Los Angeles County prosecutor argued Wednesday that former Compton, California, Mayor Omar Bradley misappropriated public money by “double-dipping” – using a city credit card and cash advances for travel – a jury will now decide the case.
Bradley’s criminal defense attorney urged the jury to acquit because his client believed all his expenditures were for city business. He said prosecutors had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Bradley knew the purchases were unlawful or that he’d acted with criminal negligence.
The 59-year-old Bradley faces a lifetime ban on holding public office on charges he misappropriated public funds. This is the second time Bradley has been tried on the charges; a California appeals court overturned his conviction in 2012 and prosecutors decided to retry him.
Proceedings began this month in Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George Lomeli’s courtroom in downtown LA. The defense and prosecution rested on Tuesday, after Bradley had taken the stand during two days of testimony.
Prosecutors say that Bradley used public money for pay-per-view movies, hats, shirts and shorts, green fees, balls, cigars, taxi cab rides and hotels that were not for city business, including a stay in Torrance on the eve of an election.
The period at issue is from 1999 to 2001. Bradley served as Compton’s mayor for two terms between 1993 and 2001.
But Bradley says his spending was always tied to city business and that he never paid for personal expenses with taxpayer money.
The former mayor testified Monday that he had played golf with officials to discuss several city projects, including his work to improve lighting in the city’s streets to reduce crime, plans to turn a disused National Guard armory into a boxing gym, and the creation of a sports and entertainment complex called Oasis.
Many of the receipts shown to jurors during the trial were for nominal charges, and included a $15 charge for a Slazenger golf hat at the California Country Club in Whittier, California, and $288 spent on shorts, a shirt, and green fees at the Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego. LA County Deputy District Attorney Ana Lopez told jurors the evidence suggests that Bradley’s golf games could have been for personal pleasure rather than city business.
Calling the matter a “simple case of fraud,” Lopez pleaded with jurors to find Bradley guilty on two felony counts of misappropriation of public funds.
She said that while purchases appeared small, it was important for the public to demand “absolute honesty” from their elected officials in how they handle taxpayer funds. She said the total amount for Bradley’s double billing – using a city credit card and cash advances – totaled almost $4,000.
“Superficially it may seem that it's a small amount. But the principal looms large,” Lopez said during her closing argument on Wednesday. “A public official is not royalty” and there are no “kings or queens of Compton,” she added.
She said Bradley’s rationale for the purchases betrayed a “childlike” man who was “visceral in his lies.”
Bradley has insisted that he needed to meet officials at golf courses to avoid interruptions and because he had received death threats that made his City Hall office unsafe on weekends. He also told jurors he was not much of a golfer and that most of his meetings were with city spokesman and entertainment attorney Frank Wheaton, and were “spur of the moment.”