Espy Secretary Says Itinerary
Edited To Hide Irregularities

WASHINGTON —(AP)— Prosecutors in former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy's corruption trial tried to show Monday that he attempted to hide some details of an evening spent with Tyson Foods executives and his girlfriend at a Dallas Cowboys game.

Espy was President Clinton's first agriculture secretary until he resigned in 1994. He is on trial for allegedly accepting about $35,000 in illegal gifts from companies his department regulated. Gifts from Tyson Foods, including sports tickets, air fare, lodging and a scholarship for Espy's girlfriend, account for about $12,000 of that amount.

Espy has pleaded innocent to 38 charges that he took illegal gifts and tried to cover it up.

Betty Stern, a secretary who handled speaking and travel invitations for Espy, testified Monday that she was asked by another employee who worked for Espy to delete certain items from a travel itinerary to a meeting in Lubbock, Texas, and a stopover in Dallas for a Dallas Cowboys game.

Stern testified she was asked to delete the items, including a limousine service and the presence of Tyson executives and Patricia Dempsey, Espy's girlfriend, from the itinerary.

She deleted the material without knowing why she had been asked to do so, Stern testified.

Stern said that when the FBI later requested a copy of the itinerary, an employee told Stern that Espy had asked her to get the edited version, "'the one we ran before,'" which Stern refused to provide.

"I said, 'you can't give that one to the FBI,'" Stern said.

Prosecutors say the earlier version had gone to Office of Inspector General agents, and they asked Stern whether she would have printed an edited version of the itinerary if she knew it was going to the inspector general.

"No, I would not. It would be the same as with the FBI — you don't alter a document for an investigative agency," Stern said.

Stern, now retired, worked at the Agriculture Department for 30 years. Starting during the Kennedy administration, she fielded invitations, made travel arrangements and prepared expense reimbursement vouchers for six agriculture secretaries before Espy.

"It was part of my job to make sure we kept him clean, well, honest, not owing anyone, just as we had done for years," Stern testified.

Prosecutors also questioned Stern about several trips Espy took in 1993, trying to establish a pattern of irregularities in his travel arrangements and a tendency to wait long periods of time to reimburse employees for travel expenses.

Prosecutors have been trying to show that a May 15 trip to Russellville, Ark., to talk to a poultry trade group was an excuse for Espy to go to a fancy party hosted by Tyson Foods Inc.

Stern testified that she was not aware that Espy was to attend the party, or that a private jet chartered for his return to Washington the next day belonged not to the trade group, but to Tyson Foods.

During another trip on June 18, Espy gave a graduation speech at a Chicago high school, then stayed to attend a Friday night Chicago Bulls basketball game with an executive of Sun Diamond Growers.

Stern said she raised concerns when Espy wanted to file a voucher to get reimbursed for his overnight hotel stay after the game.

"The concern was he was going to the basketball game and Sun Diamond was buying the tickets. It was a group that did business with the department," Stern said. She added about the hotel bill that "he could not claim it. He should have returned to his official duty station after the graduation speech."

The trial is in its fourth week of testimony and is expected to last through November. Espy faces a minimum of three years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.