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Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (35969)	7/12/2005 12:53:39 AM
From: paret	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93284

Democrat Ford may have lied under oath, report says Knoxville News Sentinel ^ \| 7/12/5 \| TOM HUMPHREY NASHVILLE - The Senate Ethics Committee is prepared to provide state prosecutors today with a report indicating that former Sen. John Ford may have lied under oath during March testimony before the committee. The report says that Doral Dental Co. officials, during interviews with the state attorney general's staff, said that a $1.1 million consulting contract tied to Ford dealt exclusively with TennCare. Ford has repeatedly insisted that his consulting work involved out-of-state work only. He resigned his Senate seat May 29 after being arrested on bribery charges unrelated to controversy over his consulting work. Ford was a partner in Managed Care Services Group, or MCSG, which received $1.1 million in fees from Doral from October 2002, through February 2005. Doral, in turn, has a contract to provide dental services for TennCare enrollees. In March 16 testimony to the committee, under oath, Ford made the following statement after a comment by Sen. Ron Ramsey that some matters "are for a court of law to decide, not the Senate Ethics Committee." "I want to say one thing," Ford said, according to the transcript. "There's nothing here for the court of law to decide. "I want to make it very clear. Management Care One or Two, whatever, has never had a contract with TennCare. Period. We have never done business with TennCare. For the record. Period. There's nothing for a court to decide," Ford said. "Anyone can come and make reckless and wanton allegations. And raise questions." The attorney general's report said Steve Pollock, president of Doral Dental, "stated that it was his understanding that the agreement between Doral and MCSG was for consulting in Tennessee and that he was unaware of any work to be performed by MCSG in any other state." Similar statements were made by Michael A. Pflughoeft, Doral's director of public relations and communications, and Robert Lynn, Doral vice president of business development. Ford has said publicly that he worked for Doral in Alabama and Mississippi, trying to recruit new business. Lynn said that MCSG did no work in those states and he was unaware of any consulting work by MCSG outside of Tennessee. Ramsey, who is chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee and serves as Senate majority leader, has called a meeting of the panel for today to ask for a formal vote to turn the attorney general's report over to District Attorney General Torry Johnson of Nashville, said Matt King, senior adviser to Ramsey. "They want to pass on the report to the district attorney general's office for possible criminal charges," said King. He said a copy may also be sent to Bill Gibbons, the district attorney general in Memphis, where Ford lives. Asked what charges might be warranted, King said, "that's for them (the district attorneys general) to decide." Ramsey, who could not be reached for comment Monday, had said earlier that the report indicates Ford "flat-out lied" in asserting that he did no consulting work in Tennessee or for TennCare. Today's Senate Ethics Committee comes with a joint House-Senate study committee on ethics scheduled to hold its first meeting. The 12-member joint committee is charged with making recommendations to the full Legislature for reform of the state's governmental ethics laws, possibly for a special session of the Legislature this fall. Gov. Phil Bredesen, meanwhile, formally signed Monday an executive order creating an "advisory board" he appointed to also recommend changes in ethics laws. Bredesen's panel also has 12 members, 11 of them named earlier and the 12th on Monday. The final member named to the panel is Cathy Bender-Jackson, vice president of Merrill Lynch in Nashville and a member of the board of directors for the Greater Nashville Black Chamber of Commerce.