Espy Aide's Sentence
Upheld Against Appeal

WASHINGTON —(AP)— A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of Ronald Blackley, onetime chief of staff to former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced Blackley last month to an unusually harsh 27 months in prison for lying to federal agents and failing to disclose $22,000 from Mississippi agribusiness interests on his 1993 public financial disclosure report.

Lamberth said he departed from sentencing guidelines that called for only probation because at the time of the offenses Blackley was in a top government position of trust.

In his appeal, Blackley said the case was beyond the jurisdiction of Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz, that the indictment failed to adequately advise him of the nature of charges against him and that the jury instructions were flawed.

The three-judge appeals panel wrote Tuesday that concealment of money by Blackley reflected ``the perpetrator's consciousness of guilt'' and that Lamberth's sentence was well within his discretion.