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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill who wrote (77967)	11/16/2000 1:44:02 PM
From: Mao II	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Prosecutor says Bush "directly deceived" him to avoid jury duty The GOP candidate "used his position as governor" to avoid questions about his past during jury selection in a 1996 drunk driving case - - - - - - - - - - - - By Robert Bryce Nov. 5, 2000 \| AUSTIN, Tex. -- Travis County's lead prosecutor on the 1996 drunken-driving case in which Gov. George W. Bush was called as a potential juror now believes he was purposely misled by Bush and his attorney in an effort to avoid service. Ken Oden, a Democrat who has been the Travis County attorney for 16 years, charged Saturday that Bush's failure to answer some of the questions on his jury questionnaire, coupled with his lawyer's efforts to get Bush excused because he might someday be called on to pardon the offender, was part of an effort to deceive prosecutors and others. Bush "used his position as governor" to avoid having to answer potentially embarrassing questions about his past, Oden told Salon. "I feel I was directly deceived." The prosecutor, who handles civil cases as well as misdemeanor criminal cases for the county, said that Thursday's news that Bush pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence in Maine in 1976 caused him to reexamine the 1996 case. "With all the new information that has come forward, it's logical to see that there may have been motives at work that none of us knew about. But at the time, we were just trying to be courteous to the governor," said Oden. That courtesy included an agreement by Oden and assistant county attorney John Lastovica that they would not object when Bush's general counsel, Al Gonzales, asked the court to excuse his client from jury duty because of the possibility that Bush might be called on to pardon the accused. The defense attorney in the case, P. David Wahlberg, confirmed Oden's version of the events. He told Salon that Gonzales' argument that Bush couldn't serve because he might be called upon to pardon the drunken-driving defendant was "laughable." But Wahlberg says he made the motion to excuse Bush because "it was a foregone conclusion" the governor would be excused, and it was also in the best interest of his client. Wahlberg's client was later convicted and sentenced to probation. The attorney added that "everybody understood [Bush] just didn't want to answer questions about drinking and drugs and things like that. That was certainly my impression." Oden also criticized Bush for failing to fully answer a questionnaire given to prospective jurors. It asks: "Have you ever been an accused, or a complainant, or a witness in a criminal case?" Given Bush's arrest in Maine, he should have checked the space next to "accused." Instead, it was left blank. A couple of other questions were also ignored, though most of the queries were answered. "The questionnaire is irrelevant because it was filled out by a staff member who left a variety of questions blank, including the Social Security number, because he didn't know the answers to them," says Bush campaign spokesman Ray Sullivan. "The governor didn't fill in any questions." It is not known why Bush failed to fill in the omitted information, or whether he saw the form before it was submitted to court officials. Another Bush spokesman, Dan Bartlett, said Bush "didn't focus on the questions because they decided to strike him as a juror." But Oden says the incomplete questionnaire matters, and leaves him feeling deceived. "Although I think there was some level of deception to the responses on the jury questionnaire and the request to be excused from the next stage of jury service, I do not believe it meets the test for criminal perjury," Oden said. Even if it did meet the level of prosecutable perjury, Oden added, the statute of limitations on the matter has expired. According to Travis County Court at Law Judge David Crain, there is no penalty for failing to answer the questions on the jury questionnaire. Crain said it is "fairly common" for prospective jurors not to answer questions on the form. "Some people won't answer anything," he said, adding that if lawyers on the case want to know specifics they will ask the jurors during the selection process. Crain, a Democrat who has been serving in his elected post since 1992, refused to comment on why Bush sought to be excused. "I'm not going to speculate on what their motives were," said Crain, who added that he agreed with the pardon argument. "I'll leave it at that," he said. Gonzales, who was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court last year by Bush, did not return calls from Salon. salon.com