Troy Edwards talks about those 'massages'

Former deputy mayor (to Hahn) Troy Edwards testified under immunity yesterday at the Leland Wong trial and detailed the gift of sexual favors linked to Wong at a Bonaventure Hotel spa. These favors hit the news in 2006, you may remember. This week, Edwards said he also received Lakers tickets through Wong but didn't know that the commissioner was being paid secretly by Evergreen Marine to secure a lease the Port of Los Angeles.

Edwards said Wong aggressively sought his help to secure a favorable deal for Evergreen on its lease at the Port of Los Angeles.

"I knew that Mr. Wong wanted Evergreen to be happy," said Edwards, who testified under promise of immunity from the prosecution that his statements will not be used against him.

Prosecutors in court showed Edwards and the jury tense e-mails exchanged by the two men over several months.

"Where the hell are you? What's the status on Evergreen?" Wong wrote in one July 2003 e-mail. "Troy, you know, your reputation sucks," Wong wrote in an e-mail later that year, adding that he had "lost face" with Evergreen.

"I am pissed and tired of being treated like crap while I fight the fight," Edwards wrote in one reply. "I do not work for you," he wrote in another.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonlyn Callahan asked Edwards whether Wong was "pressuring you to make a deal with Evergreen."

"He expressed his frustration more than once that this should happen," Edwards said. "He repeatedly called me and pushed me."

Edwards had been Mayor Jim Hahn's deputy for the port and airports. LAT, DN