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

© 2003-2009   •  About LA Observed  •  Email the editor
LA Biz Observed
4:03 PM Fri | CBS and ABC have far bigger fish to fry - namely whether their stations can get back the auto and retail advertising that fell off a cliff in 2009.
Native Intelligence
Phil Wallace | Searching for answers after a third loss this year.
Deanne Stillman | Jihad and cash offers meet American soldiers during the Gulf War, and beyond.
Iris Schneider | After a tough year financially, the Museum of Contemporary Art put on a gala party to celebrate with 1,000 of its closest friends.
Bill Boyarsky
One of the last of Doug Ring’s many good deeds was a visit to the Los Angeles Times editorial board with members of Housing LA, an organization advocating affordable housing for the thousands of residents being forced out of the city by high rents.
Jenny Burman
Thinking more about buying less.
Here in Malibu
The close-up.
Sponsors
Jewish Journal logo
The California Wellness Foundation
Playa Vista ad
Blogads

Blogads Los Angeles network

Get RSS Feeds
of LA Observed
LA Observed publishes several Real Simple Syndication feeds for easy scanning of headlines. If you wish to subscribe to a feed, most popular RSS readers will do it for you. You can also enter the web address from the XML button below or click on a specific feed. For more help with RSS, try here or here.




Add to Google