Hansen Jailed for Violating Parole on Ethics Charges

Former Rep. George Hansen (R-Ida.), who served six months in prison on felony ethics convictions, was arrested on parole violation charges for leaving Virginia without permission, authorities said today.

Hansen, who has formally challenged the conditions of his parole that limit his travel, was arrested Wednesday night at Eppley Air Field, U.S. Marshal Tom O’Hara said.

He was being held at the Douglas County Correctional Center, said Joe Vitek, corrections director.

“I’m just outraged, absolutely outraged,” Hansen’s wife, Connie, said. “They’re treating him like he was a danger to society or something.”

The seven-term conservative Republican maverick had been in Nebraska to speak earlier Wednesday evening in Louisville at Faith Baptist Church, said its pastor, the Rev. Everett Sileven. Hansen was returning to his home in Arlington, Va., when he was arrested, his wife said.

Hansen, 56, the first congressman to be jailed for breaking financial disclosure laws under the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, was convicted of four federal ethics violations in 1984, the same year he lost reelection to an eighth term by 170 votes.

A warrant was issued Wednesday for his arrest because he left Virginia several times, O’Hara said.

The U.S. Parole Commission had scheduled a hearing next week on Hansen’s challenge of the conditions of his parole. His Washington lawyer, Frank Campbell, said early today that the parole commissioner for the Northeast region, who issued the warrant for Hansen’s arrest, “apparently couldn’t wait six more days.”