Press Enterprise: Accused Postmus co-conspirator appears in court
Posted By Staff Reporter on March 9, 2010
By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise
Special Section: San Bernardino Co. Probe
An Apple Valley businessman accused of lying about his financial ties to former San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus made his first court appearance Monday morning.
John Dino DeFazio, 50, was arrested by district attorney investigators Feb. 25 and charged with two felony counts of perjury stemming from sworn testimony he gave to a grand jury last fall. Prosecutors contend he lied about a political action committee they say was secretly controlled by Postmus.
DeFazio, who pleaded not guilty via a video arraignment a day after his arrest, is out on $50,000 bail.
Accompanied by his attorney, Richard Ewaniszyk, DeFazio appeared for only a few minutes in court with Judge Michael Dest agreeing to delay his preliminary hearing that had been set for Wednesday. DeFazio will next appear in court on May 27.
Ewaniszyk suggested that he would be challenging the credibility of one of the prosecution witnesses, Adam Aleman, a former assistant assessor. Aleman agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for reduced charges of destroying evidence.
Aleman told investigators that DeFazio helped Postmus conceal a $100,000 payoff from a developer to Postmus by agreeing to be named chairman of a political action committee, according to court documents. However, Postmus secretly controlled the PAC and directed how money was spent, not DeFazio, Aleman said.
In grand jury testimony last October, DeFazio testified that he and two other directors on the PAC, developers Mike Gallagher and Jeff Bentow, controlled the PAC and Postmus had no role, court documents state.
But in interviews with investigators, Gallagher and Bentow denied any role in controlling the PAC and said they did not know they had been named to its board.
In a separate complaint, Postmus is accused of taking part in a conspiracy involving bribery and extortion to get the county to reach a $102 million settlement with Rancho Cucamonga developer Colonies Partners. The company has denied wrongdoing and defended the settlement.
Reach Imran Ghori at 951-368-9558 or ighori@PE.com
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