Former California Angels third baseman Doug DeCinces is expected to testify Wednesday at the retrial of a former neighbor and friend about his conviction for insider trading.
It’s unclear how deeply he will be questioned about it. U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford has allowed prosecutors to have DeCinces acknowledge the conviction, but jurors will not hear that it was in the case against James V. Mazzo, unless the former executive’s attorneys address the issue in cross- examination of DeCinces.
“Then the cat will not only be out of the bag, but by the end of testimony it will be running around the courtroom,” Guilford told attorneys Tuesday after jurors left for the day.
DeCinces, 67, was convicted in May on 14 counts of insider trading stemming from stock tips he allegedly received from Mazzo, his co-defendant. He was facing up to 220 years in federal prison, but has decided to testify for the government in Mazzo’s retrial in the hopes he will receive leniency in sentencing.
Jurors deadlocked on all counts against Mazzo, 61, of Laguna Beach, who was CEO of Advanced Medical Optics Inc. when he was accused of feeding stock tips to DeCinces.
DeCinces began testifying Tuesday, recounting his baseball career from when he began playing as an 8-year-old in the San Fernando Valley to the end of his professional career as a 38-year-old in Japan.
DeCinces recalled how he was drafted by the San Diego Padres following his first season at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, but wanted to earn his degree at the junior college so he stayed in school and was drafted the following year by the Baltimore Orioles in 1970.
DeCinces said he spent four years in the minor leagues before the end of the 1974 season when he became the “heir apparent” to third base from Brooks Robinson, a Hall of Famer regarded by many as one of the best at his position. He took his first major league at-bats in the 1973 season, DeCinces testified.
“It was an honor to have my childhood dream to play and an honor to take over for a nice guy and great player in Brooks Robinson,” DeCinces said. “I consider that one of my greatest feats.”
While with the Orioles, he was teamed up with eventual Hall of Famer Eddie Murray, whom he “mentored,” DeCinces said.
DeCinces was traded to the Angels in 1982, playing for them until 1987 when he was released. He then got a call from then-St. Louis Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog, he testified.
“I was on a first-name basis with Whitey Herzog,” he testified.
Herzog’s club was dealing with injuries to its third baseman and first baseman so he needed DeCinces for 10 days, he said.
“We ended up winning the pennant on the next to last day,” he said.
DeCinces decided to take advantage of a “unique opportunity” to play in Japan in 1988, he said. He added it was “quite an adjustment” culturally, but “interesting,” and he decided against returning for the second year of his contract because of a bad back.
DeCinces returned to Orange County and threw himself into building his home in Newport Beach, he testified.
He later helped start the Angels Foundation after Arte Moreno bought the team, and he partnered with Ruby’s Diner in 1989, helping the restaurant chain near its inception by building the Laguna Beach business and then others in Orange County, he testified.
DeCinces also noted in his testimony he married his “high school sweetheart” in 1971 and they have a son and daughter, 43 and 38, respectively. He joined the National Guard during the Vietnam War and served for six years, he testified.
—City News Service