Mayor Roger Hedgecock

Conceding that his "hands are temporarily tied" by a city attorney's ruling limiting donations to his legal defense fund, Mayor Roger Hedgecock said Thursday that his supporters have begun soliciting contributions that comply with the city's $250-per-person campaign limit. In a related development Thursday, Hedgecock's criminal attorney, Michael Pancer, told Superior Court Judge Daniel J.

Becoming the second top aide to leave Mayor Roger Hedgecock's staff this week, Michel Anderson, Hedgecock's assistant for business and economic development, announced his resignation on Thursday to "move on to other things." "It was a tough decision because we've been through some good times and some rough times together," Anderson said. "But it's like in poker. You've got to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. This just happens to be a good time for me to fold 'em."

Saying that "life's too short to play 'what-if,' " Mayor Roger Hedgecock insists that he has "no serious second thoughts" about personal and campaign financial transactions that led to his felony trial, adding that he would "do things pretty much the same" if he had them to do over again.

Your article "Homeless Get Help--But It's Too Little" (Feb. 11) is only the tip of the iceberg for the involuntary homeless, children, women, men, who live in the rose garden of San Diego, and they must exist among the thorns. The City of San Diego has provided a home for 600 penguins at a cost of $7 million; it has failed to provide shelter and food for our own American children, women, men. There is a social contract the American courts have upheld, and the federal, state, County and City of San Diego lack the social conscience to meet this moral obligation.

Who is likely to benefit from a new trial of Mayor Roger Hedgecock, and what makes prosecutors Edwin Miller and Richard Huffman so sure that the next time around they can win a "guilty" verdict against the mayor? In this connection some of the reasoning employed concerning the supposed stubborness of juror Leon Crowder is somewhat unusual, to say the least. Is he to be condemned because he chose to act independently of the other jurors and just because he was not convinced of the mayor's guilt?

City employee Leon Crowder, the lone juror whose staunch belief in Mayor Roger Hedgecock's innocence saved Hedgecock from a felony conviction and forced a mistrial this week, is not fretting over the controversy he created. Crowder said Thursday that he went home with a clear conscience and slept soundly after a Superior Court judge determined that, because of Crowder, jury deliberations were hopelessly deadlocked and that the case would have to be heard again.

In the wake of the mistrial caused by a deadlocked jury in his felony conspiracy and perjury case, Mayor Roger Hedgecock, his attorney and some of the mayor's closest aides said Thursday they believe the best outcome Hedgecock could hope for in a second trial would be another hung jury, not outright acquittal. "It seems like a waste of time to go through this again, because I think juries . . .

Members of homosexual, black, Latino, neighborhood, environmental and labor groups--constituencies on which Mayor Roger Hedgecock has depended for political power--said Thursday they will remain loyal to the mayor, who continues to be their strongest hope to have a hand in city government decisions.

Mayor Roger Hedgecock's friends and colleagues, some hoping to use his legal misfortunes as a stepping stone to the city's top spot, said Wednesday that the mistrial declared in Hedgecock's felony case was a tragedy that left them frustrated and the city without direction. They said the prospect of having the mayor stand trial again would do nothing but harm.