The case of Richard Jordan (Casper and Harber's shakedown)

 

See also OC Register - OC Developer Alleges Political Bribe Demand, May 23, 1978 - By Joe Cordero & Charley Roberts

Casper, Harber and the bribe

From the "Trustee Tom Fuentes files" [Fuentes got his start working for corrupt OC supervisor Caspers; Caspers' chief crony was the corrupt Harber]:

Caspers, Harber Accused of Bribe Try by Developer
LA Times

May 24, 1978
BY STEVE EMMONS Times Staff Writer

     Had not former Orange County Supervisor Ronald Caspers and his campaign adviser, Fred Harber, disappeared when their boat foundered off Baja California in 1974, they might have sailed home to a bribery indictment.
     That allegation is in a sworn deposition made a year later as part of a lawsuit against the county. The deposition was never filed in court and has come to light after an account of it was published in The Register, a newspaper published in Santa Ana.
     In it, developer Richard V. Jordan of Newport Beach swore that in 1974, Caspers strongly urged that he take his development problems to Harber, srategist and fund raiser in county government election campaigns.
     Harber promised that "I'd find it would be much easier to get along with people in the county and that things would run a lot smoother” if Jordan would pay $10,000 plus $2,000 a month, Jordan testified.
     In the deposition, Jordan said he was arranging a second meeting with Harber to help the district attorney's office gather evidence when the boat went down. Jordan's attorney, Robert Barnes of Newport Beach, said Tuesday he had only sounded out Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks or his chief deputy, James Enright, "without mentioning any names.”
     (Asst. Dist. Atty. Michael Capizzi said Tuesday that he had queried Hicks and Enright "and no one contacted any of us about this, and there is no record of any contact. If any contact was made, it must have been with a deputy or an investigator, perhaps socially.")
     At the time of the alleged bribe attempt, construction on Jordan's mobile home park in El Toro was about to be closed down on a legal technicality —that there had been too little construction to keep his permit in force.
     His permit was eventually reinstated, but by then, leases, financing and construction costs had risen appreciably, and the project folded, Jordan testified.
     He sued Orange County, which last month agreed to pay Jordan $700,000 in damages as part of an out-of-court settlement. The money was paid by the county's insurance carrier.
     On April 5, 1974, a year after the alleged bribe attempt, Jordan made a deposition for use in the lawsuit. In his testimony, made under oath but not in a courtroom, he gave this account of his dealings with Caspers and Harber.
     Jordan's land development firm, Shelter Industries, had developed one mobile home park in San Juan Capistrano and was in the market for another when it agreed in February, 1972, to trade for some land near El Toro Road in El Toro,
     The owner, Thomas Hall, already had a mobile home park plan approved and a permit to build. Jordan said he spent most of a year double checking to be sure that Hall's permits were in order and that Jordan could continue with the project once he owned the land.

     Jordan testified he received assurances from high-ranking officials in the county's Planning Department and Building and Safety Department that all was in order. Escrow closed in January, 1973.
     Jordan said he soon met resistance from Caspers, who said he preferred to have condominiums on the land. Jordan began revising his plans to suit Caspers but abandoned the effort when he met months-long delays in getting the necessary county approval, he said. He returned to the mobile home plan, for which he already had a permit.
     Early in 1974, he testified, associates told him that county building inspectors were ‘nitpicking’ about "little details that normally are not brought up.” He said he had known Caspers a long time and telephoned his office. It was too small a matter to take directly to Caspers, Jordan testified, so he asked one of Caspers’ assistants, Tom Fuentes, to find out which county department was so concerned with his project and why.
     Jordan said he received a call about a month later from Fuentes, who warned that “we were going to have some problems" but wouldn't elaborate over the phone.
     Jordan testified that he hurried to Fuentes’ office where Fuentes said Shirley Grindle, a planning commissioner appointed by Supervisor Ralph Clark, was “asking a lot of questions” about Jordan's mobile home park. Fuentes said Ms. Grindle apparently suspected that construction was deviating from the approved plan, Jordan said.
     Jordan testified that he went back to his office and pored over the plans. The location of five mobile home lots had been moved somewhat, but that, Jordan said, was too minor to cause any trouble. He called Fuentes, who arranged a meeting with Bart Spendlove, Caspers’ planning commissioner.
     Spendlove was at the mobile home park site two days later, Jordan said. Spendlove told him that “no one wants this mobile home park going in here” but that “as far as I'm concerned, you have a permit and you have started on it. I think you should be able to continue with it,” Jordan quoted Spendlove as telling him.
     Jordan agreed to plant a row of trees to further conceal the development, and Spendlove seemed appeased, Jordan testified. (Spendlove died 18 months later in a plane crash.)
     But within a week, Jordan got a telephone call from Caspers, Jordan testified. Caspers told him that Spendlove's solution to the problem “would not put out the fire” and that Caspers himself “felt he had a solution for me," Jordan said. Caspers wouldn't elaborate over the telephone but invited Jordan to meet him “and someone who he felt could solve my problem.”
     Caspers identified the problem-solver as Harber, Jordan testified. Jordan paraphrased Caspers’ proposal:
     "If I would go down to spend the weekend with them to fish (on Harber's boat at La Paz, Mexico), have a lot of fun, and if I would get to know Mr. Harber, Ron Caspers felt that this would be very beneficial for me and my problems with the county.”
     Jordan replied that he would check his schedule and call back, he testified. His second thoughts prompted him to inquire about Harber.
     “I didn't know what he did,” but Jordan testified that he soon found out. “Public relations?” Jordan was asked in the deposition. “Well, that's a nice way to word it,” Jordan answered. Jordan said he heard that Harber had been involved in a bribery scandal.
     (When Harber was city manager of Cypress in the early 1960s, his name was linked to a reported bribery effort there involving a land developer and a city councilman named Job Denmi Jr.
     (Sources close to the investigation have indicated that Harber, in exchange for immunity from prosecution, agreed to testify that he and Denni were receiving $2,000 a month from the developer. Before the case could go to the grand jury, however, Denni was killed in a plane crash [in 1966] and the case was dropped.)
     Jordan testified that he telephoned Caspers and asked why Harber was so influential in county matters. Caspers replied that Harber had clout with Supervisor Clark and Supervisor Robert Battin because he had arranged campaign financing for both, Jordan said.
     On April 26, 1974, Jorden drove with Caspers and some of Caspers’ associates to Los Angeles International Airport for a flight to La Paz and Harber's waiting boat, the Shooting Star.
     Harber was on board when they arrived, Jordan testified, and the whole group sailed to an island off La Paz.
     Jordan testified that Caspers took Jordan alone in a small boat to a nearby reef to fish and told him there that Harber was very influential with "Shirley Grindle's boss," that is, Supervisor Clark, the man who appointed her to the Planning Commission.
     Jordan returned home the following Monday, the same day an order was issued by the county to halt construction on Jordan's project. Ms. Grindle had asked Ralph Benson, the deputy county counsel for Planning Commission matters, to look over Jordan's project. He later concluded that Jordan's permit was void.
     Jordan warned Barnes, his attorney, that "I think he (Harber) is going to hit me up for a bribe," and, Barnes said, he began sounding out the district attorney's office. On the fishing trip, Harber had invited Jordan to his office, insisting however, that “you have to come alone,” Jordan testified.
     Jordan said he asked Harber how long it would take to solve his problems. “Not long,” Harber replied and said “he (Harber) wanted $10,000 now and $2,000 per month,” Jordan testified,
     “And I said, ‘How long does this $2,000 go on?’ And he said, ‘How long do you plan to develop in Orange County?’”
     Jordan testified he left without making a commitment. He said he was in the process of setting up another meeting with Harber when he was invited once again to Mexico for a party aboard Harber's yacht.
     Jordan said he declined because there would be no way for district attorney's investigators to gather evidence there and because he believed from his last trip that the boat was not seaworthy.
     The boat sank off Baja California on the return trip. Parts of the boat wert recovered, but no trace was ever found of Caspers, Harber and the eight others aboard.