J David Dominelli

Arthur D. Axelrod, a Santa Ana businessman who has built sometimes controversial careers in real estate, banking and the salvage business, has now been named president of National Health Care Systems Inc., an Irvine operator of prepaid dental plans. As president, Axelrod replaces U.T. (Tommy) Thompson, who along with Axelrod was a founder of Newport Beach-based Pacific National Bank.

Mayor Roger Hedgecock, testifying Wednesday for the second day in his conspiracy and perjury trial, repeatedly denied knowledge of indicted financier J. David Dominelli's involvement in his 1983 campaign for office. Hedgecock, 38, is charged with one count of conspiracy and 12 counts of perjury stemming from allegations that he plotted with Dominelli, head of the defunct J. David & Co., and Dominelli's business partner, Nancy Hoover, to receive illegal campaign contributions.

That J. David (Jerry) Dominelli was destined to be sentenced to many years in prison seemed a fait accompli Monday. Even an independent criminal-justice consulting firm, hired by Dominelli's family, recommended that Dominelli be incarcerated for 15 years.

Jerome C. Gatto, who federal prosecutors in San Diego say tried to bilk J. David (Jerry) Dominelli out of $125,000 in early 1984, pleaded guilty Monday to two felonies in federal court in Salt Lake City. Gatto had been charged with attempting to defraud a Southern California businesswoman of $100,000. The alleged scheme involved a gold mine near Yosemite that was supposedly owned by Gatto.

Nancy Hoover Hunter complained about being shut out of a closed-door meeting conducted in the office she shared with J. David (Jerry) Dominelli at Dominelli's investment company, according to testimony Friday in Hunter's fraud and tax-evasion trial. Debra Hart, former executive assistant to Dominelli and Hunter, said that Dominelli occasionally excluded Hunter from meetings in the year before the J. David & Co. investment firm collapsed.