The longtime mistress of former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona considered her law office a "love nest" for herself and Carona, and set up a savings account for the two of them under an obscure name because she thought that would help keep it secret, according to a witness at Carona's corruption trial.
"It was my understanding this account was to hide money from everybody," George Feles testified Thursday.
Feles, an accountant, provided the first intimate details of the affair between Carona and Debra V. Hoffman. Their relationship had been rumored for years but was not confirmed until last year when the government disclosed the romance in its indictment.
Other witnesses testified Thursday that Carona's wife knew about a campaign money-laundering scheme, and that Carona let former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl pick up the $5,000 tab for custom-made suits and shirts.
Carona and Hoffman are on trial on charges they traded the powers of his office for more than $700,000 in cash and gifts for themselves and others, including Carona's wife and former assistant sheriffs Haidl and George Jaramillo. Haidl and Jaramillo have pleaded guilty to lesser charges and have been cooperating with the government for more than a year. Deborah Carona awaits a separate trial.
Jeff Rawitz and Brian A. Sun of the law firm Jones Day, which is representing Carona free of charge, maintain that the government's case will crumble because it is built on unreliable witnesses, including convicted felons and perjurers who victimized the sheriff in their own race for money and power. These witnesses are now making allegations against Carona because they are hoping to win leniency in their own corruption cases, the lawyers say.
Feles, who took the stand late Thursday, said he knew Hoffman because he did the books for the law partnership of Jaramillo, Hoffman and Associates, when the firm was used as the headquarters of Carona's first campaign in 1998. Feles said his office and the law firm were in the same Santa Ana building.
After Hoffman left the partnership and went into solo practice, Feles said he remained a friend and visited her at her new office. He described it as a "small, cramped space" inside a preschool that "looked like you were looking into the back of a closet."
While he was there, Feles testified, Hoffman confided to him that she had been having an affair with Carona. He said he was surprised to learn "that they had been together for quite some time," dating back to when she and Jaramillo were partners.
