“Have you been informed of your constitutional rights?”
“I have.”
“Do you understand them?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Do you wish to have legal counsel present during this interview?”
“No, I do not.”
“Are the statements which you are about to make given freely and without duress?”
“Yes, they are.”
“Have you been promised anything by me or any other law enforcement official, except immunity from prosecution, in return for making these statements?”
“No, I have not been.”
“Tell me, as fully as possible, how you became involved in the crimes presently under investigation by the LAPD and the federal authorities.”
O’Hara took a deep breath and began. His presentation was that of a police officer testifying in court, as he had been trained to do. “I retired from the Los Angeles Police Department five years ago, on the offer of a job from Mr. Louis Regenstein, chairman of the board, as director of security for Centurion Studios. After I had been employed by Centurion for a year I was offered the opportunity to purchase stock in the company. I bought one hundred shares at a price of five hundred dollars a share. The studio loaned me the money to make the purchase.
“Approximately three months prior to the present date I was approached by Mr. David Sturmack, a member of the board of Centurion Studios, with an offer to trade my shares in Centurion for an equal number of shares of Albacore Fisheries, which is a company controlled by Mr. Sturmack and Mr. Onofrio Ippolito, who is also chairman of the board of the Safe Harbor Bank.”
“Was this an advantageous offer?”
“It represented an increase in the value of my investment by a factor of ten.”
“What did Mr. Sturmack tell you he wanted in return for this windfall?”
“He asked me to assist him in doing intelligence work at the studio directed at causing other stockholders to sell Albacore their shares.”
“Did you agree to help him?”
“Yes.”
“Did he ask you to do anything else?”
“Not at that time.”
“Later?”
“A few weeks later, Mr. Sturmack came back to see me. He said that he had learned that Louis Regenstein was planning to fire me as head of security. He said that he would use his influence in the company to prevent such an action, if he could count on me for other work.”
“What other work?”
“He made an appointment for me to see Mr. Onofrio Ippolito the following day. At Mr. Ippolito’s office at Safe Harbor Bank I was searched for weapons and recording devices, then I met with Mr. Ippolito alone.”
“What was the substance of that meeting?”
“He first told me that he had evidence, in the form of witnesses, that I had participated in illegal actions when I was a police officer.”
“What actions?”
“He said he had witnesses who could testify that I had accepted bribes from members of organized crime.”
“Had you accepted such bribes?”