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Tuesday, March 30,1982
The Ked and Black
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The State
Lawyer guilty of conspiring to bribe judge
ATLANTA (UPI) — A prominent
Washington attorney was convicted
Monday of acting as the "middleman"
in a scheme to give $150,000 to a Miami
federal judge in return for judicial
la y° rs for two convicted criminals
The federal court jury deliberated
only 65 minutes before returning the
verdict against William Borders. The
jury foreman said the evidence for
conviction was “overwhelming. ”
Defense attorneys said an anneal
would be filed.
The prosecution contended in the six-
day trial that Borders was the go-
between in the plan to bribe federal
District Judge Alcee Hastings.
The prosecutor, in his closing
arguments Monday, said Borders and
Hastings put "justice up for sale" with
the plan, which was aimed at helping
convicted racketeer Frank Romano.
Borders was convicted of two counts
of conspiracy oi bribery and two counts
of violating the “travel act."
When the verdict was announced,
Hastings’ lawyer ran from the cour
troom to call the district judge in
Florida.
Hastings will be tried later this year
in Florida.
Borders, following the verdict, was
led from the courtroom on the arms of
an unidentified friend.
He was ordered to report to the
federal probation office at 9 am
Tuesday and a May 7 sentencing date
was set.
"We all thought it was overwhelming
(evidence)," said Willard Camp, the
jury foreman.
Hastings, the first black named to the
federal bench in Miami and the first
federal judge charged with a felony,
had allegedly agreed to reduce to
probation three years given Frank and
Thomas Romano and to return part of
the $1.2 million of assets seized after
they were convicted of racketeering
and mail and tax fraud.
Hastings, who was Borders' college
roommate, had not acted on the sen
tence, but he had returned $845,000 of
the $1.2 million.
“He (Borders), with the help of his
friend (Hastings), put justice up for
sale," prosecutor Reid Weingarten said
in his closing argument. "Mr. Borders
committed a very corrupt act to line his
own pockets with the help of his friend
Judge Hastings Judge Hastings is up to
his ears in this."
Weingarten compared the case to a
“jigsaw puzzle," saying some of the
evidence presented during the six-day
trial seemed unimportant or cir
cumstantial. "But put the evidence
back on the table and look at it as a
whole and the picture is clear,” he said.
Weingarten said Hastings seemed
disoriented and left Washington for
Miami suddenly after Borders was
arrested for making the alleged final
payoff to an undercover agent because
“he didn't know what to do. He wanted
to buy some time before he had to deal
with the FBI.”
Shorter reminded the jury that
"Judge Hastings is clearly not on trial
here today" but the attorney still
focused his closing argument on the
judge because "the government must
prove that these two men conspired
among themselves. You cannot con
spire alone. The government has not
suggested that there were any other
parties involved in the alleged con
spiracy. You must prove that Judge
Hastings was part of the alleged con* •
spiracy."
Shorter called the FBI investigation
"poorly put together" despite telephone
taps during which Borders and
Hastings discussed the alleged scheme
and secret tape recordings of the
planning between Borders and the
undercover agent and the actual
transfer of money The tapes were
played for the jury.
"You've heard nothing disreputable
about this judge,” Shorter said. "Judge
Hastings is an honest judge."
100 Georgians
under suspicion
of tax evasion
ATLANTA (UPI) - The
Department of Revenue
has subpoenaed the per
sonal financial records of
about 100 south Georgia
residents who have filed
"apparently fraudulent”
tax returns, Revenue
Commissioner Bill
Strickland said Monday.
Strickland said privacy
provisions of the state
revenue code stopped him
from going into details of
the operation, which he
said was caught by
Revenue Department
computers. He said the
computers are
programmed to “kick out"
tax returns that look
suspicious.
Strickland said there is a
"mathematical norm” of
deductions for each income
tax bracket and that the
machines reject any in
come tax returns which
vary substantially from the
norm.
"Our computers kicked
out some returns," said
Strickland. "It appeared
there was a ring of
fraudulent operation in a
couple areas of south
Georgia."
He said he could not be
more specific until the
department's subpoenas
are answered. But he said
criminal charges would be
filed.
Strickland said the state
revenue code protects the
identities and financial
details of taxpayers until
they are charged with a
criminal violation.
"It appeared to involve
some taxpayers and tax
preparers is all I can say,”
Strickland said. “It was a
matter of putting down
what we suspected to be
fraudulent information. ’'
He added that "the last
count I had was ap
proximately 100 returns”
that were suspect. He said
the amount of revenue in
dispute was probably not
large, but “there's no way
to tell on that until we get
the records” the depart
ment has subpoenaed.
Strickland said the
disputed tax claims were
“mostly individual
returns” and involved such
violations as “filing more
than one return, falsifying
signatures, falsifying
exemptions, deductions or
income.” He said "about
four preparers” were in
volved.
"We have mathematical
norms and things like that,
things built into the system
that are supposed to detect
various types of
discrepancies," Strickland
said.
He said there is a normal
error rate for returns
rejected because of
miscalculations, forgotten
signatures or use of federal
tax deductions which do rftt
apply to Georgia income
taxes.
"I’m not talking about
things like that here,” he
said. "I'm talking about
things where there are
pretty obvious attempts to
defraud."
Kiepper to leave MARTA
ATLANTA (UPI) -
Atlanta rapid transit chief
Alan Kiepper Monday an
nounced he was leaving his
Atlanta post to take a similar
job in Houston.
Kiepper. general manager
of the Metropolitan Atlanta
Rapid 1 Transit Authority for
the past 10 years, told the
MARTA board of directors
he would stay on through
April to preside over the
transition period of his
successor.
His announcement came
as no surprise. There had
been speculation for weeks
that he would accept an offer
to head the Houston
Metropolitan Transit
Authority.
But apparently as late as
last week. Kiepper was
reluctant to leave Atlanta,
and was still seeking
assurances that he could still
be of some use at MARTA.
Kiepper was appointed
MARTA manager March 1,
1972. He has received
recognition as the man who
turned the transit system
into a reality, taking over the
reins at a time when much of
the system was unbuilt and
unplanned
Some $1.4 billion has been
spent on the complex
engineering project to date.
In a meeting with board
members last Monday,
Kiepper had sought
assurance that he could still
be useful at MARTA, despite
a stormy relationship with
some board members.
According to participants
of that closed-door meeting,
he was not assured.
"Nobody really came up
and said, 'We want you to
stay,"' said one observer.
"There wasn’t any reaction
on that issue while he was
before the board.”
Kiepper attended the first
15 minutes of the meeting
and the board spent the next
hour and 45 minutes arguing
over whether to hike
Kiepper's salary as a
gesture of confidence
Two of the 14 board
members voted down the
salary hike, four cast no vote
at all and the rest of the
board agreed to an am
biguous offer for a pay raise
to be negotiated if and when
Kiepper rejected the
Houston offer.
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Cold snap kills
state’s apple crop
ELLIJAY.Ga. (UPI) — The weekend cold wave that
swept across Georgia and much of the southeast may
have wiped out three fourths of the state's apple crop,
but agriculture officials said Monday peaches were ap
parently spared
Temperatures in north Georgia where the majority
of the apples are grown dipped to the mid-teens in some
sections Officials said the apple trees had begun to
bloom and were especially susceptible to cold
temperatures.
Temperatures in the Klijay and Blairsville area dip
ped to 14 degrees.
“The weekend cold snap may have costs Georgia ap
ple growers as much as $:t million,” state Agriculture _
Commissioner Tommy Irvin said
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