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| McDougal Acquitted in
California |
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LINDA
DEUTSCH
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Copyright © 1998 Associated Press.
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SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Whitewater figure Susan McDougal was
acquitted Monday of embezzling from conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife -- a case McDougal
said was trumped up to pressure her to testify against President Clinton.
"Everything that's happened to me in recent years has been about
Bill Clinton," McDougal exulted after the jury acquitted her on nine counts,
including forgery and failure to pay state income taxes. The jury deliberated for parts of
four days.
"They want me to say things against Bill and Hillary Clinton. ...
People say to me, 'Are you scared of Ken Starr?' He'd better be scared of me because I'm
on my way back."
McDougal, 44, was accused of stealing $50,000 from Mehta and his wife,
Nancy, when she was a bookkeeper and personal assistant to Nancy Mehta from 1989-92.
McDougal could have received four years in prison.
"It was such a crazy story to have someone believe this woman
[Nancy Mehta] could be so vile as to do this, and I was afraid people wouldn't believe
me," McDougal said.
McDougal pleaded guilty to the charges in 1993. They included 12 counts
of theft, forgery and failure to file state tax returns with the alleged embezzlement
totaling $150,000. But during the trial, on Nov. 12, California Superior Court Judge
Leslie Light threw out three of the counts and reduced the total in the main count of
grand theft to $50,000.
The case took five years to get to trial. During that time McDougal
became famous, hailed by many as a hero for her refusal to testify against her friend
Clinton before the Whitewater grand jury. The decision cost her 18 months in jail for
contempt of court.
McDougal served 3 1/2 months of a two-year sentence for felony
convictions related to an illegal loan from Capitol Management Services Inc., a federally
backed lending institution run by former Pulaski County Municipal Judge David Hale. She
was released because of a painful back condition.
Also convicted were her late ex-husband, James McDougal, and former
Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker.
McDougal still faces prosecution in federal court in Arkansas on two
counts of criminal contempt of court and one count of obstruction of justice related to
her repeated refusal to testify in the Whitewater case.
"Tell Ken Starr we're coming home, and this time we're fighting
back," McDougal's fiance, Pat Harris, said after the verdict.
The California case played out as a Hollywood-style subplot of the
scandal in Washington and Arkansas, though jurors were warned by the judge not to consider
her Whitewater involvement or any possible ulterior motives on the prosecution's part.
Outside the jury's presence, defense attorney Mark Geragos said Starr
had promised to make the embezzlement charges go away if McDougal would testify. When she
refused, he alleged, Starr "propped up" the case and urged prosecutors to move
on the defendant.
"Of course it's related to Whitewater," Geragos said after
the verdict. "You think if her name was Susan McDonald they would try this
case?"
Starr's office said in a statement that the California charges were brought before the
appointment of any Whitewater independent counsel and were unrelated.
Juror Kathleen Spain, 71, said at a news conference that the jury
followed instructions and "washed Whitewater out of our minds."
In the Santa Monica courtroom, however, McDougal's adversary was not
Starr but Nancy Mehta, a former actress.
Nancy Mehta insisted that she never gave her assistant permission to
sign checks or credit card receipts, and portrayed their relationship as strictly
business.
Asked if she knew McDougal was signing receipts on a joint credit card
in both their names, she replied firmly, "No, never," and said she didn't even
know the card existed.
Documents produced by the defense appeared to contradict that, with her
own signature showing up on the same card for some $30,000 worth of goods.
McDougal painted a different picture of their relationship. She
described her employer as a sisterlike friend who showered her with gifts. She said they
became inseparable, lunching together in fine restaurants and shopping "like
tornadoes" at the best stores in Beverly Hills.
Eventually, McDougal moved into the Mehta home.
She portrayed Nancy Mehta as a lonely woman whose husband traveled
abroad most of the year and left her to manage their finances.
In a climactic appearance, Mehta flew to Los Angeles from Munich,
Germany, interrupting a concert schedule to testify that his wife was not a compulsive
shopper and that their spending habits should not be on trial. |
This article was published on Tuesday, November 24, 1998
RETURN to Clinton
Crisis |
Copyright © 1998, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights
reserved. This document may not be reprinted
without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. |
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