8 Charged in Probe of Alleged Bribery

SAN BERNARDINO — A county supervisor, four current or former Colton City Council members and three others have been charged in connection with the alleged bribery of officials for their help in winning approval for projects or deals in Colton.

The defendants include San Bernardino County Supervisor Jerry Eaves, 62, who is a former state assemblyman; Colton Councilman Donald Sanders, 43; former Colton Mayor Karl Gaytan, 47; and former Councilmen Abe Beltran, 69, and James Bruce Grimsby, 49.

According to court documents, the projects or deals were:

* A set of seven billboards on county-owned flood-control land in Colton, at the interchange of Interstates 10 and 215, which required special approvals because they violated city ordinances.

* Three restaurants that developer Allan Steward, 54, of Laguna Beach sought to build in Colton. Steward also owned a part of the company that obtained the billboard deal.

* An exclusive contract to market and sell homes in a mobile home park owned by the city of Colton.

A federal grand jury on Thursday morning indicted Eaves, Sanders, Steward, billboard company owner W. Shepardson McCook of Newport Beach, Beltran and Grimsby. Federal prosecutors filed charges, also Thursday, against the remaining two defendants, Gaytan and Michael Berg, general manager of Suncrest Homes, who sought the mobile home sales contract.

Steward, Beltran and Berg have agreed to plea bargains, federal officials said. Gaytan is negotiating for one, they said.

McCook’s attorney, Brian O’Neill of Santa Monica, said his client will fight the charges.

He said McCook had been shaken down by corrupt officials and had taken the matter to federal prosecutors, who turned his cooperation against him.

An attorney for Sanders declined to comment. Grimsby has yet to hire a lawyer, federal officials said.

The charges were announced at the Sheriff’s Department by U.S. Atty. John S. Gordon, FBI Acting Assistant Director Ron Iden and Sheriff Gary Penrod. A task force involving FBI agents and sheriff’s detectives has been investigating suspected corruption in the county for three years.

The first wave of federal indictments resulting from the probe came in fall 1999. In October that year, federal prosecutors announced plea agreements with four former top appointed San Bernardino County officials and three private businessmen, all of whom were later convicted of federal bribery charges.

While the two sets of indictments have central figures in common, they are not all related. Still, “I don’t think we have had many cases where there are as many interconnections as there are here” in San Bernardino County, Gordon said.

The indictment is another serious blow to the reputation of Eaves, 62. In June he pleaded no contest to seven misdemeanor counts of violating state conflict of interest laws and failing to report gifts. He was put on three years’ probation and fined $20,000 but allowed to keep his seat. A recall effort is underway against him.

Eaves is a former Kaiser Steel foreman who became mayor of Rialto, then a state assemblyman.