PROBE: Declaration for arrest warrants detail lavish China trips, extortion threats

11:01 PM PST on Thursday, February 11, 2010

By JOHN ASBURY
The Press-Enterprise

A lavish business trip to China, prostitutes, bribes, blackmail and drug abuse are elements of a corruption case laid out in a declaration filed to justify arrest warrants for former San Bernardino County public officials Bill Postmus and Jim Erwin.

In a declaration based on witness interviews and investigation, Hollis D. Randles, a senior investigator with the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office, describes an elaborate, years-long campaign to persuade or coerce county supervisors into approving a $102 million lawsuit settlement with a developer identified as John Doe No. 1.

Postmus is the former chairman of the county supervisors and former county assessor. Erwin is a former assistant assessor. In Randles’ account, both were key players in advancing the interests of John Doe No. 1, whose company Colonies Partners ultimately won the $102 million settlement in 2006.

Jeff Burum, co-managing member of Colonies Partners, took Erwin on a trip to New York and has denied any wrongdoing.

Many of the details were supplied during an interview with Postmus’ chief aide, Adam Aleman. Aleman pleaded no contest in July to destroying public documents and false testimony in exchange for reducing the charges against him to misdemeanors depending on what future testimony he could provide.

Excerpts from Randles’ declaration show some of the evidence used in the decision to arrest Postmus and Erwin:

Postmus told Aleman that during a county trade mission to China, a general partner with Colonies Partners — John Doe No. 1 — treated him to a prostitute, expensive dinners, nightclubs and massage parlors.

“Postmus told Aleman that while in China, the developer spent ‘thousands and thousands’ of dollars on him,” according to the affidavit. “They ‘laid the groundwork’ for the settlement agreement and for what Postmus could expect to get for his part in approving the settlement in favor of Colonies Partners.”

“It almost became his daily obsession to lobby his other colleagues to settle the lawsuit,” Aleman told Randles.

San Bernardino County Administrative Officer Mark Uffer said that after the China trip, Postmus arrived at county headquarters with a “handful of cigars” and a “burning desire” to settle the Colonies Partners lawsuit.

Uffer said that when he asked how the trip went, Postmus responded, “We got to settle that case with the Colonies right now. We got to get that settled.”

According to Aleman, Erwin said the Colonies partner was “politically blackmailing” Postmus and another county supervisor, identified as John Doe No. 5. Aleman said he was told the developer had hired private investigators to go through the trash of Postmus and the other supervisor to find information that could be used against them. Allegations about Postmus’ drug use and homosexuality and the other supervisor’s mounting personal debt were used in political mailers, which Erwin threatened to send if the supervisors didn’t settle the Colonies suit.

Paul Biane is a San Bernardino County supervisor who voted in favor of the settlement.

A week before the settlement was approved, Erwin and a media consultant known as John Doe No. 3 met in Ontario. Erwin represented Postmus and the media consultant represented the developer. “They were all looking to know what they were gonna get,” Aleman said.

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