Ex-HUD Aide Guilty in Influence Scandal : Trial: Former official, 2 others convicted of giving gratuities. But they are acquitted of more serious charges.

A federal court jury Tuesday convicted a former high-ranking aide in Ronald Reagan’s Department of Housing and Urban Development and two other men of giving gratuities to a HUD official.

The ex-aide, Lance H. Wilson, was acquitted on more serious charges of bribery, mail fraud and conspiracy in the HUD influence-peddling scandal that has been investigated by an independent counsel for nearly three years.

Texas developer Leonard E. Briscoe and Nebraska lawyer Maurice David Steier, who were convicted of giving gratuities to the same official, also were found innocent of the more serious charges during the 12-week trial, the first growing out of the scandal.

Wilson was executive assistant to former HUD Secretary Samuel R. Pierce Jr. from 1981 to 1984. Pierce, who has not been charged with any crime, served the entire eight years of Reagan’s presidency, the only Cabinet member to do so. He now is a New York attorney.

Wilson was convicted on one count of giving a gratuity, after he left the government, to then-deputy assistant HUD secretary DuBois Gilliam in September, 1986. Briscoe, of Ft. Worth, and Steier, of Omaha, were found guilty on two counts each of giving gratuities to Gilliam.

Each count is punishable by a maximum prison term of two years and a fine of $250,000. Sentencing was set for late March by U.S. District Judge Stanley Harris, who ordered Briscoe to serve an immediate two-day sentence for contempt of court for engaging in repeated outbursts during the long trial.

Attorneys for all three defendants said they would appeal. None of the three men took the witness stand in their own defense.

The guilty verdicts came as the staff of independent counsel Arlin M. Adams continued to investigate allegations of fraud, mismanagement and cronyism during the 1980s at HUD, including allegations that Pierce showed political favoritism in administering four HUD programs and lied under oath to Congress when he denied ordering subordinates to approve financing for specific programs.

Congressional investigators, at the conclusion of hearings in late 1989, had asked the Justice Department to seek the appointment of the independent counsel. Adams, a former federal judge from Philadelphia, was named by a panel of federal appellate judges.

Several former officials and others have been indicted and four have pleaded guilty. Three defendants currently are awaiting trial, including former high-ranking HUD officials Deborah Gore Dean and Thomas T. Demery.

Wilson, Briscoe and Steier were tried on charges they conspired to bribe Gilliam in exchange for favorable action on HUD grants for projects Briscoe was developing in Florida and Texas. Wilson at the time was a member of the Wall Street investment firm of Paine Webber Inc.

Prosecutors alleged that Wilson sought to obtain Urban Development Action Grants from Gilliam even though some of the projects he represented for Briscoe could not meet HUD criteria.

Gilliam, who pleaded guilty four years ago and was sentenced to prison, was the government’s star witness at the trial. He testified he had accepted a total of $400,000 to $500,000 in bribes while at HUD from the defendants and others.

During eight days on the witness stand, Gilliam was attacked by defense attorneys as a habitual liar who sought leniency in the form of a four-month prison term in return for his cooperation with the government.

Gilliam admitted having lied during testimony before a House subcommittee that investigated the scandal. But he maintained he was telling the truth to jurors about arranging to receive payoffs from Wilson, Briscoe and Steier.