WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, December 5) -- Several jurors in the corruption trial of former agriculture secretary Mike Espy say the case, with its $17 million investigation by an independent counsel, was a waste of taxpayer money.

Former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy leaves federal court in Washington Dec. 2 after being acquitted

"I hope that we sent a message to these independent counsels. We, the American people don't want any more of these trivial, petty cases. Seventeen million dollars for this? This was a travesty," The Washington Post quoted juror Anthony Young as saying. The Post said four other jurors echoed Young's views.

A federal jury on Wednesday cleared Espy of all 30 counts accusing him of taking illegal favors and gifts from companies he regulated, charges stemming from a four-year investigation by Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz.

Some jurors said the prosecution failed to explain clearly what Espy had done wrong.

"I think what in the end was lacking was a key element or theory," said juror Barbara Bisoni, a 25-year-old accounting consultant.

Bisoni said jurors were not certain that some charges even amounted to crimes. Witnesses and evidence presented over seven weeks by Smaltz failed to show how a complicated and sometimes contradictory set of ethics laws applied to Espy, she said.

For example, documents the jury reviewed indicated some gifts were allowable if a public official reimbursed the giver, Bisoni said. Yet Espy was charged with mail fraud for mailing a reimbursement for sports tickets.

"I don't feel they completely met their burden of proof in showing that these things were wrong, or that Espy even knew" what was legal and what was not, she said.

Espy's lawyers, who presented no witnesses, never disputed that he took sports tickets and meals from several companies. But they claimed the gifts were all proper and that the gifts never affected Espy's judgment.

Smaltz spokesman William Noakes, a deputy prosecutor, said, "Based on the juror comments, I think we could have made it perhaps simpler and clearer, and perhaps made the case more concise for the jury."

Other jurors could not be reached for comment Friday. The list of jurors' names was sealed by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina.

Bisoni said an initial poll of jurors showed they agreed Espy was innocent of some charges. But jurors were "about evenly split" or confused on others, differences that were largely resolved by careful reading of the laws involved.

Race was not a factor, said Bisoni, the only white juror among 12.

"It was not an issue that was even mentioned or brought up during the deliberations," she said.

Espy was the nation's first black agriculture secretary. Defense lawyers and several of Smaltz's own witnesses referred during the trial to race and perceived prejudice at the Agriculture Department.

Smaltz complained about such references, and appealed to jurors not to let race play a role in their decision.

Bisoni said the jury was not overwhelmingly sympathetic to Espy, who was forced from office in 1994 by the allegations of wrongdoing. Given a Cabinet secretary's ethical obligations, she said, she thinks it perhaps proper that Espy lost his job.

Espy has acknowledged he was insensitive to "the appearance of impropriety."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Saturday, December 5, 1998

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• Espy trial 'a travesty,' some jurors say
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