Tucker Failed to Declare $58,495 to IRS, Jury Told

U.S. Rep. Walter R. Tucker III failed to declare $58,495 in income, including more than $30,000 that he allegedly extorted while serving as mayor of Compton in 1991 and 1992, a federal jury was told Thursday.

Using large charts mounted on a stand, Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator Kent Greenberg described in detail the trail of money flowing into Tucker’s bank accounts during those years.

His testimony constituted an attack on defense claims that Tucker thought he was receiving campaign contributions, not bribes, when he took $30,000 over a two-year period from businessman-turned-FBI informant John Macardican.

Questioned by Assistant U.S. Atty. John M. Potter, Greenberg said he found no evidence that the money was deposited into any of Tucker’s campaign accounts.

Instead, he said, he was able to match each of the seven alleged payoffs to deposits, most in cash, into Tucker’s personal checking account at Capital Bank of Compton.

Defense attorney Robert Ramsey Jr. suggested, however, that the money ultimately might have wound up in Tucker’s campaign coffers as loans to himself.

In his cross-examination of Greenberg, he also questioned the accounting method used to calculate Tucker’s underreporting of income.

Tucker is accused of extorting $30,000 from Macardican’s Compton Energy Systems Inc., which wanted to build a $250-million waste-to-energy plant in Compton, and $7,500 from Murcole Disposal Inc., the city’s residential rubbish collector. He also is charged with demanding a $250,000 kickback and with failure to pay income tax.

All of the payments from Macardican to Tucker were documented on FBI videotapes and audiotapes, which form the heart of the government’s case.

In statements to the jury, the defense has contended that Tucker was the victim of entrapment by an overzealous FBI informant who pressed him to accept cash for his campaign and as payment for consulting services.

According to government exhibits, Tucker and his wife, Robin, initially declared $41,924 in total income in 1991 and $38,662 in 1992, the bulk of which came from their salaries as Compton municipal employees.

Tucker reported a profit of $23,367 from his law practice in 1991 but a $23,349 loss from Kingdom Records, a gospel music firm. The two-term Democratic congressman is also a nondenominational minister.

Greenberg testified Thursday that Tucker failed to declare on his 1991 income tax return $6,000 that he received in alleged bribes from Macardican, $1,450 that he received for referring a client to another lawyer and $500 he received for legal services to Pipefitters Union Local 831 at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard.

In 1992, Tucker listed a $1,242 loss on his law practice and a $15,958 loss on a training program, Preparation for Life, that his wife operated for young people.

But in that year, Greenberg told the jury, Tucker failed to list $24,000 in payoffs from Macardican (the cash was provided by the FBI); $10,000 from DeMenno/Kerdoon, a Compton waste oil business; $3,000 from Coastal Warehouse of Vernon; $4,000 from BJS Development Corp., which operates a Compton swap meet; $2,500 from Murcole, the rubbish firm; $5,554 from two insurance companies; $1,000 from Mercury Plastics in the City of Industry, whose owners have close business ties to Compton, and a $250 honorarium from USC, his alma mater.

Although the indictment accuses Tucker of pocketing and failing to report $29,000 in cash, Greenberg testified that a check of bank records showed that Tucker deposited a total of $74,000 in currency into his bank account in 1991 and 1992.

He said he could not account for the other $45,000.

Earlier Thursday, the prosecution called a hostile witness, Wanda Williams, Tucker’s congressional appointments secretary who served previously as his legal secretary in Compton.

She testified that after he became mayor, a job that paid $24,000 a year, Tucker complained to her that he was having “a hard time caring for his family” because his law practice was suffering. As a result, she said, he tried shifting his practice from criminal defense to personal injury cases. In early 1992, however, he decided to run for the congressional seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally and his law practice dried up.

Williams had been questioned by a federal grand jury in 1994 about checks received by Tucker in 1991 and 1992, and she discussed some of her testimony with Tucker, she acknowledged Thursday.

After his discussion with Williams, Tucker and his wife filed amended returns for 1991 and 1992.

Greenberg testified Thursday that the amended returns still were $7,850 short of his true income.