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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SOROS who wrote (2718)	9/13/1998 10:49:00 PM
From: Les H	Respond to of 67261

Judge Rebukes Susan McDougal AMANDA COVARRUBIAS Associated Press Writer SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) - The judge in Susan McDougal's embezzlement trial today angrily told the Whitewater figure to keep quiet in court and avoid facial expressions that could influence the jury. ''Are you totally unable to keep your mouth closed?'' snapped Superior Court Judge Leslie Light during a hearing before the jury was brought back in for resumption of opening statements. ''Sit there like a wooden Indian,'' he also told her. ''I'm sorry,'' the defendant said after the reprimand, which came after she answered out loud a question the judge had asked of her attorney. She had acted in a similar manner on Tuesday, the first day of opening statements, prompting the judge's anger by shaking her head or rolling her eyes during the prosecutor's statement. Mrs. McDougal is accused of embezzling $150,000 from symphony conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife, Nancy, while employed by the couple. When Mrs. McDougal's attorney, Mark Geragos, resumed his opening statement today, he laid out a defense claiming that Mrs. Mehta had encouraged Mrs. McDougal to spend her husband's income so that none of the money would go to his children. The attorney said Mehta has a number of children who are not Mrs. Mehta's, and this was a source of conflict. ''She was afraid he would take that money and give it to the kids. Any of their income would go through Nancy and then she took complete control of disbursement,'' Geragos said. In his comments today, Geragos did not specify whether the children he referred to were from a previous marriage or were illegitimate. His suggestion Tuesday that Mehta had illegitimate children had drawn a rebuke from the judge, who said he would not allow ''speculation, innuendo and character assassination.'' Geragos said Mrs. Mehta fabricated charges against Mrs. McDougal simply because she had left her employment. The defense began presenting its side Tuesday after the prosecutor told the jury that Mrs. McDougal bought clothes, paid credit card bills and rented a townhouse using money she stole from the Mehtas. ''Susan McDougal was running around with a credit card in her name and spending money as if it was the good old days in Arkansas,'' Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Semow said Tuesday. Mrs. McDougal had lived a luxurious lifestyle in Arkansas but was unable to maintain her expensive tastes after moving to California in 1987, Semow said. He said the Mehtas were a ''golden opportunity'' for Mrs. McDougal. Among the credit card purchases in question were $695 at I. Magnin for clothes supposedly for the Mehtas. There were also $304 worth of women's clothes from Bullock's recorded as linens for the Mehtas' rental properties, Semow said, and a townhouse they rented in Dallas for two months for $5,400. Mrs. McDougal, 43, worked as a bookkeeper and personal assistant to the Mehtas from 1989 to 1992. She is charged with embezzlement and tax fraud, accused of using the couple's checks and credit cards without authorization. A former Whitewater business partner of President Clinton, she spent 18 months behind bars rather than testify before the federal grand jury investigating Clinton. She also served 31/2 months of a two-year Whitewater-related sentence for fraudulently obtaining a $300,000 loan in 1986. She was freed from prison because of a painful back condition. The embezzlement case is unrelated to Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr's investigation.