Former Rep. Tucker Reports to Prison for 27-Month Sentence

Former Rep. Walter R. Tucker III, convicted last year of extortion and income tax fraud, started his 27-month term Monday at the Lompoc federal prison, where he plans to apply for placement in a program in which inmates are treated like military recruits at boot camp.

Accompanied by his wife and other family members, Tucker reported to the prison for processing at 2:45 p.m., according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

An ordained minister, Tucker will probably become involved with a prison ministry and may open a church on his release, said Mark Stephen Smith, one of his attorneys.

“We anticipate that we can get him released within a year’s time and put him in a halfway house,” Smith said.

Depending on whether he is approved for the military-style program, Tucker may serve only about six months behind bars, prison officials said. Inmates who enter and complete the six-month camp will be sent to finish their sentences at halfway houses, the officials said.

The military-style camp at Lompoc’s prison will be the third such program in the federal prison system, and the second for men. The Lompoc camp is slated to open in August.

“It is pure basic training,” said Larry Morrison, administrator of the program. “You bring them in the front door, you shave their heads, and they do military drills and field training. We’ll wake them up at 5 a.m. and we’ll keep them busy all day long.”

The program, administered by Bureau of Prisons employees, also will offer literacy and vocational training and drug counseling, Morrison said. Inmates who complete the program will be better prepared to return to society, he said.

U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall, who presided over Tucker’s trial and sentencing, recommended that he be admitted to the program, but he must first pass a physical examination and convince prison officials that he is mentally conditioned for it.

“He feels he’ll be able to handle it,” Smith said.

Based in an unfenced area down the road from the main prison dormitory, the program will be open to healthy inmates with sentences of less than 30 months. Prison officials said they have been inundated with applications to the camp, and will give priority to those younger than 36. If accepted, Tucker, 38, will face rigorous physical training six days a week.

Tucker’s sentence, which is less than the 30- to 37-month term recommended by a probation officer, stems from his conviction in December on extortion and income tax fraud charges. A jury found the two-term Democratic lawmaker guilty of extorting $30,000 from a businessman while serving as mayor of Compton in 1991 and 1992, and of failing to report the payments to the Internal Revenue Service. Tucker maintains that he was entrapped by overzealous prosecutors.

His record was already marred by a misdemeanor conviction on a charge of altering a public record, which could complicate his bid to be admitted to the boot camp program. A Lompoc prison spokeswoman said camp administrators would frown on applicants with prior offenses.

Tucker was placed on three years’ probation after pleading no contest in 1988 to the misdemeanor charge, which grew out of a narcotics case he worked on as a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney. Law enforcement officials charged that he had tampered with evidence in that case.

Heir to a Los Angeles-area political dynasty, Tucker tendered his resignation from Congress one week after his conviction, clearing the way for a large field of would-be successors. He endorsed his wife, Robin, for his seat, but she and several other candidates were defeated by Juanita M. McDonald.