Espy Case Testimony Wraps Up,
On To Jury For Deliberation

WASHINGTON —(AP)— Former Clinton administration Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy took illegal favors from companies he regulated and knew it was wrong, the independent counsel who investigated Espy for four years told a jury.

The former Clinton Cabinet official abused the public trust by accepting trips, pro basketball tickets and other perks from companies he regulated, Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz said in his closing argument Monday.

"This case must be decided on the facts. It cannot be decided on sympathy or politics or race," Smaltz said.

Espy is black, and the jury hearing his corruption case is mostly black. The jury began deliberations Tuesday morning.

Espy faces 30 charges involving about $33,000 in sports tickets, travel, entertainment and the like. He pleaded innocent and a defense lawyer ridiculed the prosecution case Monday as "a bunch of garbage."

Espy's lawyers chose not to call any defense witnesses, leaving the jury to decide his fate based solely on Smaltz's evidence.

"They haven't even gotten close" to proving wrongdoing, defense attorney Ted Wells contended during his emotional closing argument. "This thing has been a bunch of garbage. It has been a joke every day."

"Check 'Not guilty' 30 times," Wells shouted at the jury.

Throughout the trial, Espy, now a lawyer in private practice in Mississippi, took notes or quietly read from a Bible kept hidden from the jury's view as former friends and co-workers took the stand. Several testified under grants of immunity from prosecution for their roles in giving gifts.

The jury heard 70 witnesses and examined thousands of documents as Smaltz pieced together the story of how Espy attended several sports events and parties as the guest of companies such as Tyson Foods Inc.

"Why else fly him, treat him, wine and dine him — a person who is a virtual stranger — and bring his girlfriend along if it was not an attempt to influence him?" Smaltz asked the jury.

Espy, 45, is the first Cabinet-level official to go on trial since Raymond Donovan, who was labor secretary in the Reagan administration.

Espy is not charged with taking bribes, and the prosecutor does not have to prove Espy did the farm companies any favors in return.

To convict Espy on most of the gift charges, the jury must find that the gifts came to Espy because of his job and that Espy understood that. He faces three years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.

Espy, a former Democratic congressman from Mississippi, was forced to resign at the end of 1994, after the White House became concerned about continuing news reports of his dealings with businesses he regulated.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina dismissed eight charges last week and a portion of a ninth, but he left the most serious charges intact.

The judge did not throw out three charges that Espy violated the federal meat inspection law by taking favors from companies such as Tyson Foods. Espy faces a minimum of three years in prison if convicted on those counts. Other counts would likely carry minimal jail time or probation upon conviction, lawyers have said.

Urbina rejected most charges related to Espy's attendance at the 1994 Super Bowl in Atlanta, along with charges that Espy illegally took a crystal bowl and a $1200 scholarship for his girlfriend from farm companies regulated by his agency.

Urbina ruled that Espy was on official business when he traveled to Atlanta, where the Forest Service symbol Smokey Bear was scheduled to be part of the Super Bowl halftime show. The Forest Service is part of the Agriculture Department.

Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz had cast the trip as a pretext for Espy and friends to attend the game.

The judge said the crystal bowl and the scholarship were "knowingly accepted by Mr. Espy personally," and thus outside the scope of conflict of interest laws.

The judge also rejected a wire fraud count related to a 1994 trip Espy made to Texas and part of a "false statements" charge alleging Espy lied to Agriculture Department investigators after reports surfaced that he had improper dealings with farm companies.

"The basic framework of the case is still very much in place," said William Noakes, a deputy prosecutor, after the judge's rulings.

Lawyers for Espy had asked the judge to throw out the entire case.

Smaltz spent four years investigating Espy, his family and associates, culminating in a seven-week trial that included testimony about Espy accepting trips, trinkets, sports tickets and other favors from companies he regulated.

Nor was Espy simply a passive recipient of others' gifts. A former secretary testified that Espy repeatedly directed her to draw up a list of regulated companies from which he could solicit money.

The investigation has already produced several convictions of companies and individuals involved in the gift-giving, and garnered millions of dollars in fines.