Dumanis on Azano meetings: They were ‘meet and greets’

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis found herself in an unusual seat Wednesday when she took the witness stand in federal court to testify about meetings she had with a wealthy Mexican businessman accused of funneling $600,000 in cash and services to her and other San Diego mayoral candidates in 2012.

Dumanis said the first time she met with Jose Susumo Azano Matsura was at his home in Coronado in December 2011 in what she described as a “meet and greet” lunch not unlike others she had with potential campaign donors. Dumanis said Azano told her some things about himself, and she did likewise, but they did not discuss any financial arrangements.

“The thing I do remember is the cars that he showed me. I have an affection for cars,” Dumanis testified, noting that Azano had several “sporty” vehicles on his property.

The second meeting was in March 2012, when she introduced Azano to Sheriff Bill Gore at the Sheriff’s Department headquarters. She said she was the one who initiated the meeting because Ernie Encinas, a longtime friend and retired San Diego police detective who worked for Azano, wanted it to happen.

“(It was) a meet and greet as elected officials. We do that quite often,” Dumanis said from the witness stand in U.S. District Court, across the street from her own offices at the downtown Hall of Justice.

She testified she knew at the time of the second meeting that Azano had been “helping” with her campaign, but she was unaware of any questions regarding his immigration status.

“I believed him to be a U.S. citizen,” she said.

Foreign nationals who have no legal status in the United States, such as a green card, are prohibited from contributing to domestic elections.

Dumanis, a former San Diego Superior Court judge who was elected the county’s district attorney in 2002, was the second witness the defense called in the trial that began four weeks ago. On trial are Azano and three other defendants, including his adult son, a campaign consultant and a lobbyist.

The district attorney remained on the witness stand Wednesday for about 90 minutes — her testimony stretching into the noon hour to avoid her having to return after the lunch break.

Apparently, she did not enter or exit the Edward J. Schwartz U.S. Courthouse through the public entrance off Broadway or pass through the courtyard between the two federal court buildings where the news media were waiting to photograph her.

Federal prosecutors indicted Azano and the others on charges they plotted to secretly funnel illegal contributions in the 2012 mayor’s race to Dumanis’ campaign — she lost — and that of Bob Filner, who eventually won. Filner later resigned amid a sexual harassment scandal.

Azano’s attorney, Michael Wynne, said earlier this month that he wanted to call Dumanis to testify to counter the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s accusations.

The Mexican tycoon is charged with supporting Dumanis by contributing $100,000 to an independent committee he set up and hiding the source of the donation by routing it through a shell corporation based in the United States. He arranged for straw donors to contribute almost $15,000 to her campaigns, according to prosecutors.

He is also accused of secretly paying for the services of Ravneet Singh, a Washington, D.C.-based campaign consultant whose firm ElectionMall worked on the web page and social media for Dumanis’ failed mayoral bid.

Immediately after the allegations against Azano became public, Dumanis said she was unaware of any assistance Azano had given her campaign, and she has given varying accounts of her interactions with him.

She said initially she only met him once at a lunch at his Coronado mansion. Later, the meeting with her, Azano and Gore became public. In the two years since the indictments, she’s also been shown to have written his son a letter of recommendation to the University of San Diego and participated in a conference call with Azano and Singh on Christmas Day 2011.

On cross examination by a prosecutor, Dumanis said she couldn’t recall anything special about the meeting in Coronado.

“I believe that the meet and greet was like every meet and greet that I have on the campaign trail,” she testified. She said she could not recall everyone who was at the lunch but acknowledged that Encinas was among the attendees. Encinas has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge and filing a false tax return, and has cooperated with federal authorities.

Dumanis said she couldn’t remember whether Azano mentioned that he had recently returned from Miami.

“I think he probably talked about his travel, but I don’t recall,” she said.

View the Video Bonnie Dumanis - Corruption Investigation

Prosecutors contend Azano wanted to develop San Diego’s waterfront into “Miami West” but needed a friend in the mayor’s office to help him make the half-billion-dollar plan a reality. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Schopler told the jury during his opening statement that Azano intended to “buy a mayor” through an illegal campaign finance scheme.

Wynne, Azano’s lawyer, countered that the prosecution’s waterfront development theory is “concocted by the government to save an investigation.”

Dumanis didn’t say much about the second meeting with Azano — the one with Gore — but another witness called Wednesday by the defense indicated it had been somewhat unexpected.

Adrian Reyes, a friend of the Azano family, said he was headed to Fashion Valley mall with Azano in the businessman’s Ferrari 599 GTO when they got a call from Encinas telling them to go to the Sheriff’s Department. Reyes said when they arrived, they saw Dumanis and her campaign fundraiser, Kelli Maruccia, in the parking lot.

“I was a little shocked to be honest,” Reyes said, adding that Dumanis was “expressing how important Bill Gore was.”

Reyes said the meeting was “like a first date,” noting that Azano and Gore introduced themselves to one another and engaged in small talk about golf and what Azano does for a living — running a business that deals in security-related hardware and software platforms. In the end, Reyes said, the sheriff gave “medallions, stickers and business cards to Azano, and we just left.”

During her testimony, Dumanis was asked about the college recommendation letter and the Christmas Day conference call. She acknowledged she had written a letter for Azano’s son after she lost her bid for mayor in the primary. She said she often sees those kinds of requests.

When questioned by John Kinchen, attorney for Edward Susumo Azano Hester, 24, Dumanis agreed with him that she did not sift through her campaign records before agreeing to write the letter.

In a Dec 25, 2011, email, Dumanis mentioned the conference call with Azano, Encinas and Singh. In it, she wrote that Azano “is very wealthy” and that he is “helping to raise funds from his family and friends.”

She testified later that she sent a thank you note to Azano, as was her practice with people who had contributed money or helped with the campaign, and that she received a gift basket from him in December 2012, after the election was over. She said she did not know, or suspect, that Azano may have been reimbursing straw donors who contributed to her campaign.

“If I had suspected that, we would not have taken those checks, because that’s a violation of the law,” she said.

Azano’s lawyer has said he also plans to subpoena Filner, Democratic Rep. Juan Vargas of San Diego and developer Douglas Manchester, former owner of The San Diego Union-Tribune. He has told the judge his part of the trial may run through the end of the week.

At least one other defense lawyer, Nancy Rosenfeld, has said she plans to call witness on behalf of her client, lobbyist Marco Polo Cortes.