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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, October 18, 2007

Contractor bribe trial hears from Isle escort

By Allison Hoffman
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO — A prostitute whom prosecutors say a defense contractor provided to a U.S. congressman testified that the legislator fed her grapes as she sat naked in a hot tub before they headed to a bedroom at a Hawai'i resort.

The woman spoke at the trial of Brent Wilkes, who is accused bribing former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham with $700,000 in cash and perks in exchange for help securing about $90 million in government contracts. Wilkes has denied the charges.

Donna Rosetta said she was chauffeured to a private villa at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel on the Big Island in August 2003 by an escort service she worked for. Cunningham and Wilkes invited her and a second woman to undress and slide into a hot tub before Cunningham invited her upstairs, Rosetta said.

"They were smoking cigars and talking about some meeting they had earlier," Rosetta said.

She and Cunningham went to a bedroom, and he tipped her $50 to $80, she said.

The other woman, Tammy McFadden, testified that Wilkes and Cunningham appeared to be arguing about who would go upstairs with which woman.

"The one I ended up with was the one who was running the show," said McFadden, referring to Wilkes. She described Cunningham as "the boisterous one" and said he was overbearing.

Earlier in the day, Wilkes' nephew and employee, Joel Combs, testified that he found the escort service in the phone book on a $20,000 trip to Hawai'i that also included catered meals and a diving trip captured on a video that was played for jurors.

Combs told jurors his uncle paid thousands of dollars for golf trips, private jet flights, Super Bowl box seats and boat navigation systems for Cunningham. In return, Combs testified, Wilkes had virtually unlimited access to the lawmaker.

"He could get Duke on the phone anywhere, any time," Combs told Phillip Halpern, an assistant U.S. attorney. "He treated him really well."

Combs, the second person Wilkes hired after launching his own defense contracting company in 1995, was called as a government witness and testified under a grant of immunity.

Cunningham, a San Diego Republican who held seats on the powerful House Intelligence and Defense Appropriations committees, was elected to eight terms before resigning in 2005. He pleaded guilty that year to accepting $2.4 million in bribes from Wilkes and others and is serving an eight-year prison sentence.

Combs testified yesterday that his uncle communicated with other prominent lawmakers, including California Republicans Jerry Lewis and Duncan Hunter, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, Republican Whip Roy Blunt and Hawai'i Sen. Daniel Inouye, a Democrat. But the relationship with Cunningham was at the center of Wilkes' success in Washington, and Combs said his uncle worked to keep the lawmaker happy.