Was Accused of Concealing Contacts With Defense Firm : Ex-Official Cleared in Job-Search Case
George A. Sawyer, a General Dynamics Corp. executive and former assistant secretary of the Navy, was found not guilty Tuesday of misrepresenting his job-hunting contacts with the firm while he was still at the Pentagon.
After deliberating less than five hours, a federal jury cleared Sawyer of two felony counts relating to information on the financial disclosure form he filed when he left the government in mid-1983 to become a General Dynamics vice president.
Although the charges were technical in nature, the Justice Department attempted to convince the jury that Sawyer was secretly negotiating a job with the giant defense contractor when he still was in a position to help it land shipbuilding contracts.
Lehman Praises Ex-Aide
But many of the government’s own witnesses disputed that claim and praised Sawyer’s honesty during his 2 1/2-year tenure as overseer of the buildup of the Navy fleet. Navy Secretary John F. Lehman Jr. said Monday: “I don’t think I’ve ever dealt with a man who had more integrity than George Sawyer.”
The case was not related to the recent indictment in Los Angeles of four former and present General Dynamics officials, including NASA Administrator James M. Beggs, for allegedly defrauding the government on the development of the Sgt. York anti-aircraft gun.
But the indictment of Sawyer last October was developed by the same special team from the Justice Department that is pursuing the firm on other fronts, and the verdict was seen as a blow to that initiative.
Specifically, Sawyer was charged with concealing meetings with General Dynamics officials before he reported that they had made him a firm job offer in May, 1983, and that he failed to report that he had been given airline tickets worth $833 for traveling to various interview sites. If convicted, he could have been sentenced to five years in prison and fined $20,000.
He Did Not Profit
Tom Hamilton, one of the prosecutors, conceded to the jury that Sawyer did not profit from the payment of his travel expenses, and “we’ve never tried to suggest to you that Mr. Sawyer going to work for General Dynamics was improper.” But he urged conviction on grounds that Sawyer’s so-called termination form concealed information and “we have a right to know what our officials are doing.”
Lehman and other Navy officials testified that Sawyer had long informed them he intended to leave the government and seek a higher-paying job, and that he relieved himself from decision-making when he began his job search in earnest in March, 1983.
