Troopers in Clinton Dispute Face Inquiry

The Arkansas State Police will investigate two troopers who accused President Clinton of misusing his security detail while serving as governor, the agency’s director said Wednesday.

However, police will not investigate the allegations made by the troopers, including claims that Clinton used his bodyguards to help arrange extramarital trysts.

Col. Tommy Goodwin, who has served as State Police director during the tenure of several governors, including Clinton, said he saw no evidence that Clinton had violated the law.

Clinton has said the stories told by Troopers Larry Patterson and Roger Perry, who were on his gubernatorial security detail, are not true.

“I don’t think we have any choice” but to investigate the troopers, Goodwin said. “I think they were accused of insurance fraud” in press reports about a lawsuit that an insurer filed against Patterson and Perry.

Cliff Jackson, the troopers’ attorney, said he thought Goodwin had his priorities confused.

Columbia Mutual Insurance Co.’s suit accuses the two troopers of being in collusion to collect an insurance payment from a policy on Patterson’s private vehicle for a crash that occurred while Patterson was driving a State Police car.

Patterson and Perry acknowledged in depositions that they lied to superiors about how much they had to drink that night, and other activities prior to the Dec. 28, 1990, accident.