Former Senator’s Aide Indicted in HUD Probe

Elaine M. Richardson, a one-time assistant to former Massachusetts Sen. Edward Brooke was indicted Thursday for allegedly lying to the FBI and a federal grand jury looking into Brooke’s role in the HUD influence-peddling scandal.

The nine-count felony indictment alleged that Richardson and Brooke arranged with “senior officials” at the Department of Housing and Urban Development for 150 housing units worth $14.7 million in federal subsidies to be “held” for Brooke.

Although HUD officials in Washington indicated that the units were to be used in Lowell, Mass., “they anticipated that these units would remain inside HUD and unused until Mr. Brooke later indicated where he wanted the units used,” the indictment alleged.

In 1986, 66 of the 150 units were assigned--at the request of Brooke and Richardson--to Worcester, Mass., for use in a project owned by a Brooke client, the indictment said. Brooke, a Republican who served as a U.S. senator from 1967 to 1979, was a lawyer and consultant for businessmen seeking lobbying help with HUD on federally subsidized housing projects in the 1980s.

Richardson lied to the FBI in 1990 and committed perjury before the grand jury this year when she denied that Brooke had ever had HUD-subsidized units reserved or held for him, the indictment stated.

Richardson was charged with four counts of obstructing a grand jury probe, four counts of perjury before the grand jury and one count of making a false statement to the FBI.

The housing involved in the Richardson indictment was part of HUD’s Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation Program, one of the most scandal-plagued operations in the HUD tenure of housing secretary Samuel R. Pierce Jr.

Brooke did not return phone calls to his law offices. Richardson’s lawyers did not return phone calls.

She is the ninth person to be indicted in the two-year investigation of the HUD scandal by independent counsel Arlin Adams.

On Thursday, Samuel Pittman Singletary, a friend of Pierce, became the first person to be sentenced in Adams’ probe. Singletary was sentenced to five years of probation for tax evasion.