Rep. Ford, 2 Others Cleared in Conspiracy, Fraud Case

Rep. Harold E. Ford (D-Tenn.) praised God and a federal jury Friday after he was acquitted of charges he took payoffs from two former bankers and political allies.

Ford had been charged with 18 counts of conspiracy, bank and mail fraud. The Tennessee Democrat was accused of taking bogus loans from convicted former Tennessee bankers Jake and C. H. Butcher Jr.

The congressman’s two co-defendants, former Butcher lawyers Douglas Beaty and Karl Schledwitz, also were acquitted. They had been charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and mail fraud. The U.S. district court trial began March 1.

Ford, 47, Tennessee’s only black member of Congress, accused prosecutors of being racists and Republican Party lackeys. They denied those allegations.

“We had good citizens on this jury who didn’t fall for what the government was giving out. . . . I am so happy for everybody,” Ford said during a victory party in his crowded, noisy office.

The jury of 11 whites and one black chosen to hear his second trial was bused in from largely rural, predominantly white counties north of Memphis.

The Rev. Melvin Charles Smith, Ford’s pastor, joined the congressman in praising God for the acquittal. “The days have been dark. The nights have been long. But you have been with us,” Smith said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Gary Humble, one of Ford’s two prosecutors, said the government accepted the verdict, “like we do in any case.”

“We just ask that justice be done,” Humble said.

Ford had shown no emotion as the jury’s foreman began reading the verdict count by count. But at count 17, Ford raised his left hand to his face to cover his eyes and slumped slightly in his chair.

After the jury was dismissed, Ford’s son, Harold Jr., rushed up, hugged his father and kissed him on the cheek. Ford had tears in his eyes.

Two jurors, both white, interviewed after the trial said the government simply failed to make its case.

“We set three men free that were falsely accused,” said juror Danny Montgomery of McNairy County. “The key point in deciding the verdict was the lack of evidence.”

Later in the evening, Ford entertained about 400 supporters at a champagne party in a hotel ballroom just a few blocks from the courthouse.

Ford’s first trial, in 1990, ended in a mistrial when a Memphis jury of eight blacks and four whites failed to reach a verdict.