Judge Says 3 Officials May Be Witnesses : Courts: Mayor Bradley, Dist. Atty. Reiner and Sen. Cranston can be subpoenaed to testify in fraud case of former commodities broker.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner can be called to testify at the fraud trial of a former commodities broker who once gave them hefty campaign contributions, a Van Nuys Superior Court judge ruled Thursday.

Mark R. Weinberg, 37, who is facing 12 felony charges, also was given permission to subpoena U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston, for whom Weinberg hosted a posh reception in the mid-1980s at his Beverly Hills home.

In his ruling, Judge John Fisher agreed with the defendant that evidence of Weinberg’s largess to the three prominent Democrats could support his defense that he was not out to cheat his clients.

Weinberg, who is representing himself in the case, said that testimony by the three will show that he did not misrepresent his political connections in order to woo investors.

In 1984, Weinberg gave $200,000 in cash and a $50,000 loan to Reiner, then Los Angeles city attorney running for district attorney. The Weinberg money accounted for about one-fourth of the total Reiner raised in his successful bid to unseat Dist. Atty. Robert Philobosian.

He also gave $84,000 in the mid-1980s to Bradley, and hosted parties at his home for Democratic presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale and U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey.

Among the alleged victims who have testified in the trial’s first week were John Paul Jones DeJoria, president of John Paul Mitchell Systems, a Santa Clarita-based hair products company, and Susan Aubrey, daughter of former CBS president James Aubrey. DeJoria testified that he lost $450,000 he invested with the defendant.

The hair products executive said that in June, 1988, he gave Weinberg $200,000 and did not get the money back, much less the $50,000 profit that Weinberg had promised him within a few days after he completed a foreign currency trade.

Over the next 20 months, DeJoria said, Weinberg took him “for a sucker time and again” by persuading him to turn over an additional $250,000 in small sums.

Each time, DeJoria said, Weinberg convinced him that the additional money would allow him to close deals that would free up all the money he was owed.

Under cross-examination by Weinberg, DeJoria acknowledged that in 1987 he twice gave $100,000 to the defendant and that both times Weinberg returned the money within days along with a promised $25,000 profit.

Susan Aubrey testified that her father, a friend of Weinberg’s, gave Weinberg $100,000 of her money with a similar promise of a quick profit, but that no money was ever returned.

Weinberg, who faces up to 10 years in prison, contends that he was a victim of business reverses and was working to pay back all investors when he was charged.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Patricia Ann Bigelow said that instead of repaying investors, Weinberg gambled away much of the money at Las Vegas casinos.

The judge appointed the state attorney general’s office to prosecute the case after excusing Reiner’s office because of a potential conflict of interest stemming from the contributions.