Olivia Scanlon, the Ethics Commission’s star witness against Tony Hall in their 3 year long effort against the former District 7 Supervisor, plead the 5th Amendment against self-incrimination as the hearing progressed on October 27. She was a former Aide to Hall.
Scanlon, who also serves as an Aide to Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, appeared at the hearing in response to a subpoena from Hall’s attorney David Waggoner. He had earlier filed a criminal charge against Scanlon that alleged she tampered with evidence, as reported in the September Observer.
At the hearing into the anonymous complaint filed at the Ethics Commission charging that Hall improperly used campaign funds for personal expenses, Ethics Commissioners heard testimony from defense witnesses. But when it came time for the testimony from the prosecution’s star witness, Olivia Scanlon, who had been summoned to answer questions about the discrepancy in the evidence, she plead the 5th Amendment in connection with her previous testimony in the matter.
In September the Commission heard testimony in support of the allegations. It included charges that then Supervisor Hall had misused funds, repaying Scanlon $12,000 from campaign funds for a personal loan that she had made to Hall, and charges that he had bought food and gas for campaign workers and volunteers without filing the necessary paperwork, and that he purchased personal gifts for his wife and daughters with a campaign credit card in the amount of $320.
The pivotal evidence, the checks Scanlon submitted to the Ethics Investigators as evidence of the alleged loan, came into question when it was discovered that there were two versions of the same check. One version had the notation “services” in the lower left corner, indicating the reason for the payment, the other check, bearing the same number and contained in the official exhibit at the trial, had no such notation, which led to the questions surrounding the evidence which precipitated the criminal charges brought against Scanlon for tampering with evidence. Commissioners and the Ethics leadership continue, however, to press on with the hearings into the matter in spite of the shaky evidence.
Hall noted the cost to the people of the City for the hearings, “it is unfortunate, because the taxpayers are also the victims of this over-zealous prosecution. With four City employees working on this case for the last three years—when that time is tallied—the expense may well be over a million dollars. I know there are better uses for our hard-earned tax dollars. This incredible attack on my character is unprecedented, as far as I know. I remain confident that the Commission will make the right decision, but there has to be better oversight of shenanigans like this. I hope the Ethics Commission will get its priorities clear to assure the public that it is not driven by political agendas.”
At the hearing, Commissioners heard Peter Fatooh testify that Scanlon had misused theater tickets he had secured to be used as gifts to campaign volunteers and donors and, he said, that he stopped helping the campaign because she had used them herself. He said he “stopped taking her calls,” because “she lied about their use.”
Contractor Michael Buckley testified that he had considered hiring Scanlon’s husband, Seamus Cudden, as a subcontractor, but refused to pay him in cash, which was the only terms under which Cudden would accept employment.
Frank Gallagher, media relations consultant, testified that he had worked with Scanlon on the Hall for Supervisor campaign in 2003 and that the checks from the campaign funds were for work Scanlon had done as Volunteer Coordinator and for her work raising funds for the campaign. He had “no doubt” that Ms. Scanlon was paid $12,000 for services she had performed with the Irish-American community, and especially for her help with contractors. He further testified that the gas and food charges were for bone fide campaign expenses.
Eamon J. Murphy, construction contractor, testified that Scanlon solicited campaign funds from him for the newly-appointed Sean Elsbernd when he visited him in his offices in City Hall.
Peter Bagatelos, Hall’s campaign attorney, testified that he had advised Hall about the use of gas and meals for the campaign, and that there should have been a proper accounting for each expenditure, but that those kind of expenses are not usually subject to charges, and amounted to “de minimis” errors. He said that the single expenditure, the charge for purses for his wife and daughters at a Virginia City leather shop, happened when Hall mistakenly used the wrong credit card. He advised Hall to repay the $320 to the campaign and to apologize for the error and offered to settle the gaff with Ethics with a small fine. His efforts to settle the minor problems did not meet with any response from Richard Mo, the officer in charge of the complaint, he said. Bagatelos charged that Mo had prejudged Hall’s behavior before the investigation began, because Mo told him early on “Hall lied about expenditures and had intimidated witnesses.”
When Olivia Scanlon was called as a witness, she appeared in the hearing room, but her lawyer, Edward Swanson, of Swanson, McNamara and Haller, a firm specializing in criminal defense, appeared on her behalf and invoked the 5th Amendment against self-incrimination, stating that, since criminal charges had been filed, she reserved her right to remain silent.
The commission is scheduled to make a determination on the facts and the law at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Ethics Commission on December 8th. Contractor
“The case against Tony Hall has been politically motivated from the beginning and the fact that the woman making these allegations in the first place had to take the Fifth today to avoid perjuring herself even further in this matter bears out the absurdity of the charges against him,” David Waggoner, an attorney for Hall, said after the hearing.
November 2008
