Sunday January 21 8:26 PM ET
Biographic Sketches From Pardon List
By the Associated Press, COMMUTATIONS: DAVID RONALD CHANDLER JACOB ELBAUM LINDA SUE EVANS DAVID GOLDSTEIN ARNOLD PAUL PROSPERI MELVIN REYNOLDS SUSAN ROSENBERG KALMEN STERN PARDONS: WILLIAM STERLING ANDERSON PEGGY A. BARGON WILLIAM A. BORDERS JR. JOHN BUSTAMANTE HENRY CISNEROS DONALD R. CLARK ROGER CLINTON E. HARLEY COX JR. JOHN DEUTCH WILLIAM FUGAZY SR. LLOYD GEORGE PATRICIA HEARST BILLY LANGSTON PETER MACDONALD SUSAN MCDOUGAL HOWARD LAWRENCE MECHANIC SAMUEL LORING MORISON ROBERT W. PALMER CHARLES ``PUG'' RAVENEL MARC RICH STEPHEN A. SMITH CORY STRINGFELLOW JOHN FIFE SYMINGTON III CHRISTOPHER V. WADE JACK WILLIAMS JIMMIE WILSON
Biographic sketches of some of the prominent people on President Clinton (news - web sites)'s list of pardons and commutations, issued Saturday before leaving office:
Chandler at one point was in line to be the first person executed by the federal government since 1963. He was convicted in 1991 of running a drug ring that trafficked marijuana from the foothills of northeast Alabama and was condemned to death for ordering the murder of an associate-turned-informant. He was the first person sentenced to die under a 1988 drug law, and was given a March 30, 1995, execution date. However, a federal judge blocked the execution to give the courts more time to consider issues raised by Chandler's appeals.
Elbaum, 40, was one of three Hasidic Jews from Rockland County, New York, convicted in January 1999 of stealing tens of millions of dollars in federal grants and loans to finance a fictitious yeshiva in Brooklyn. They were ordered to repay the money in fines and were sentenced to serve sentences ranging from two years to seven years in prison. The commutation reduced each man's sentence to 30 months.
Evans, 53, was ordered in 1990 to serve five years for her role in a bombing conspiracy at the U.S. Capitol after completing a 35-year term she was already serving for illegally buying firearms. Evans also pleaded guilty to conspiring to set off explosions at eight locations in a two-year campaign of ``armed propaganda'' to protest government policies.
Goldstein, 54, was one of three men from a community of Hasidic Jews in Rockland County, New York, convicted in January 1999 of stealing tens of millions of dollars in federal grants and loans to finance a fictitious yeshiva in Brooklyn. They were ordered to repay the money in fines and were sentenced to serve sentences ranging from two years to seven years in prison. The commutation reduced each man's sentence to 30 months.
Prosperi, 52, a college friend of Bill Clinton and a fund-raiser for him, was convicted of filing false tax returns and scheming to steal millions from a client. Prosecutors said the prominent Hobe Sound, Fla., lawyer wrote himself checks from the accounts of an offshore company set up by the client, an Irish citizen. He was sentenced in 1998 to three years in prison. Prosperi suffers from myasthenia gravis, an illness that causes extreme muscle weakness.
Reynolds, 47, a Chicago Democrat, resigned from the House after being convicted in 1995 of having sex with a teen-ager. He had more than two years left to serve on a 61/2-year federal sentence imposed after being convicted of lying to obtain loans and of illegally diverting campaign money for personal use. He had previously served 21/2 years of a five-year state sentence for having sexual relations with an underage campaign worker.
In 1984, Rosenberg was found guilty of weapons possession and sentenced to 58 years in prison for her participation in the bungled 1981 Brink's armored car robbery that left two policemen and a guard dead in Rockland County, N.Y. She was also arrested in the 1983 Capitol bombing, but the charges were later dropped. In prison, Rosenberg has renounced all radical activity and been a model prisoner.
Stern, 42, was one of three men from a community of Hasidic Jews in Rockland County, New York, convicted in January 1999 of stealing tens of millions of dollars in federal grants and loans to finance a fictitious yeshiva in Brooklyn. They were ordered to repay the money in fines and were sentenced to serve sentences ranging from two years to seven years in prison. The commutation reduced each man's sentence to 30 months.
Anderson, 58, a former South Carolina House Speaker Pro Tem, was sentenced to 14 months in prison in January 1987 for charges stemming from the falsification of customer credit records for his mobile home business in South Carolina.
In May 1994, Bargon gave first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites) a ``dream-catcher'' - a collage of beads, stones and feathers on a hoop - a good luck token in Indian lore. Federal agents raided her farmhouse and she was charged with one count of possession of an eagle feather, a violation of little-known migratory bird laws. She pleaded guilty and paid a $1,500 fine.
The once-prominent Washington attorney and former president of the National Bar Association was convicted of conspiracy along with then-U.S. District Judge Alcee L. Hastings in a Miami racketeering case. While Hastings was acquitted, Borders was sentenced to a five-year prison term and disbarred. Borders was also held in contempt of court for refusing to testify during Hasting's criminal and Senate impeachment trials.
Bustamante, 70, was a pillar of Cleveland's black community as chairman of First National Bank Association of Cleveland and publisher of the Call and Post newspaper. He pleaded guilty in 1993 to a federal charge of defrauding an insurance company and was placed on probation. He pleaded after a federal judge threw out his 1991 conviction on five felony fraud charges.
Cisneros, 52, was housing secretary during Clinton's first term before moving to Los Angeles to run Univision, the nation's largest Spanish-language television network. In 1999, Cisneros pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor after a four-year, $9 million probe into charges he lied about payments to a former mistress.
Clark, 60, was sentenced to life in prison in 1991 for his role in a $30 million high-grade marijuana ring. Clark was one of the leaders in a conspiracy to grow and sell ``Myakka gold,'' an especially potent marijuana grown on a 600-acre former sod and watermelon farm leased by Clark in Myakka City, near Sarasota, Fla. More than 25 people, including Clark's sons Duane and Gary, were indicted in the drug ring.
President Clinton's half brother pleaded guilty in a 1984 case to a charge of conspiracy to distribute a single gram of cocaine, was sentenced to two years in prison, served more than a year, and testified in other trials. The prosecutor was Asa Hutchinson, who later was a U.S. House manager in President Clinton's impeachment. Bill Clinton told Hutchinson later that the drug prosecution was ``the best thing that ever happened'' to his half brother.
A former president of the Arkansas Bar Association and former lawyer for FirstSouth Savings and Loan, based at Pine Bluff, Ark., who served 16 months in prison after he was convicted in 1991 on 15 counts of fraud and conspiracy for his role in FirstSouth's 1986 failure at a cost to taxpayers of $600 million, the largest collapse of an S&L at the time.
Deutch, 61, CIA (news - web sites) director from May 1995 to December 1996, stored and processed hundreds of files of highly classified material on unprotected home computers that he and family members also used to connect to the Internet, according to an internal CIA investigation. The Defense Department's inspector general found similar conduct during Deutch's prior service at the Pentagon (news - web sites). Prosecutors offered Deutch a deal under which he would plead guilty to keeping government secrets on unsecured home computers and receive no prison time.
The one-time limousine mogul was a former confidant of New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and ex-New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. In 1997, after going bankrupt, Fugazy pleaded guilty to shifting some of his remaining assets into another company controlled by his children to avoid paying creditors who claimed he owed them $75 million. He was sentenced to two years of probation for committing perjury.
A former Arkansas state representative, from Danville, Ark., who admitted in 1997 that he sold an overpriced irrigation system to the state prison system and served nine months' home detention.
Hearst, 45, was a 19-year-old newspaper heiress who was kidnapped by radicals in 1974 and convicted of joining them in a San Francisco bank heist. She claimed she was brainwashed by her Symbionese Liberation Army captors and forced to participate in the armed robbery. President Carter commuted her seven-year sentence after she had served 21 months.
Langston, 46, a first-time offender, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 1994 for conspiracy to manufacture PCP. His sentence became a symbol for groups opposed to mandatory federal sentencing standards. Arrested while transporting drug-making chemicals, a job for which he was paid $1,000, he said he never manufactured PCP, didn't purchase the chemicals and didn't believe he was at risk for arrest ``because you could get the chemicals over the counter.''
MacDonald, 72, former president of the Navajo Nation, had served over half of a 14-year sentence for his role in a July 1989 riot in Window Rock, Ariz., that killed two of his supporters. The melee followed five months of tension and other violence among members of the nation's largest tribe after MacDonald was suspended from office by the Navajo Tribal Council on suspicion he had accepted kickbacks from contractors and cronies. On July 20, 1989, a group of his supporters stormed tribal headquarters in Window Rock in an attempt to restore him to power. Tribal police opened fire, killing two MacDonald supporters.
McDougal, 46, was a partner of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Whitewater land development in northern Arkansas. She was convicted of misusing proceeds from a federally backed loan and was jailed 18 months on a contempt of court citation for refusing to testify against the Clintons before a Whitewater grand jury. She was acquitted in a separate obstruction of justice trial.
Mechanic fled after a federal judge sentenced him in 1972 to serve five years for throwing a cherry bomb during a war protest at Washington University in St. Louis. He changed his name to Gary Tredway and ran a motel-apartment complex and health-food business in Scottsdale, Ariz. He continued his social activism, attending City Council meetings and pushing for clean elections and environmental causes, and his secret was discovered when he ran for the Scottsdale City Council.
Morison, employed at the Naval Intelligence Support Center in Suitland, Md., from 1974 to 1984, was convicted of spying for leaking intelligence photographs in 1984 to Jane's Defence Weekly, a British military magazine. In a case that matched First Amendment issues against national security concerns, Morison was the first person convicted of espionage for furnishing classified data to a journalist. He served two years in jail.
Palmer, a Whitewater defendant, pleaded guilty to a felony count of conspiracy to file false appraisals for Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan of Little Rock, which was owned by James McDougal, a former business partner of President Clinton. He was sentenced to a year of home detention.
Ravenel, 62, a former gubernatorial candidate, pleaded guilty in October 1995 to his role in the failure of the Citadel Federal Savings Bank, which prosecutors called one of the biggest bank frauds in the state's history. He was sentenced to 11 months in federal prison.
The billionaire commodities trader was convicted in the early 1980s on 51 counts of conspiracy, tax evasion, racketeering and trading with the enemy. Before his trial, he fled to Switzerland to escape the charges. Switzerland has refused to extradite him.
Smith, a University of Arkansas communications professor, pleaded guilty in a Whitewater case to a misdemeanor count of conspiring to misapply funds from a federally backed business loan of $65,000. He said that paying a $1,000 fine was better than spending $70,000 for lawyers to prove his innocence.
Stringfellow, 31, was sentenced to 188 months in federal prison in 1995 for conspiring to sell LSD and fleeing to England. Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson and Utah's two senators lobbied for Stringfellow, arguing the offense was non-violent and happened in his youth.
The former Republican governor of Arizona resigned after being convicted in 1997 of using false financial statements to obtain loans. An appeals court overturned his convictions and prosecutors were still pursuing the case against him. He still faces a civil case in U.S. Bankruptcy Court stemming from a $10 million loan to six union pension funds.
Wade, a Whitewater real estate agent, admitted hiding assets in a bankruptcy case and pleaded guilty to bankruptcy fraud and submitting a false application to a bank, though the charges against him were not related to the Whitewater development. He served 13 months in prison.
A former lobbyist at Washington for poultry giant Tyson Foods Inc., based at Springdale, Ark., who was convicted in 1998 of two counts of lying to investigators in a probe of former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy's dealings with agri-business companies, and paid a $5,000 fine.
A former Arkansas state representative, from Lexa, Ark., who served 41/2 months in prison after pleading guilty in 1991 to five federal misdemeanor counts of selling mortgaged crops and converting government loans to his own use in 1981 and 1982.
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