McDougal Files Motion in Fraud Case

Whitewater figure Susan McDougal, President Clinton’s former business partner, sought to have charges dismissed Wednesday that she embezzled $150,000 while working as a bookkeeper for former Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Zubin Mehta.

McDougal’s attorney, Mark Geragos, filed papers in Santa Monica Superior Court, arguing that the case should be thrown out because McDougal’s transfer from a Texas federal medical facility was illegal.

She was being held in Texas on contempt charges for refusing to testify before a Whitewater grand jury. She was transferred to Sybil Brand Institute for Women near downtown Los Angeles in mid-December.

“She’s being held on civil contempt charges. She’s not supposed to be kept in a punitive environment,” Geragos said. “They’ve done a wonderful job of placing her in the worst environment you could think of, and they’re punishing the hell out of her.”

The Los Angeles district attorney’s office would not comment on the motion. “We’ll deal with it in court,” said spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons.

Geragos says that McDougal was transferred to a high-security, 6-foot by 8-foot cell in the women’s jail so the stressful environment would increase the pressure on her to testify in the Whitewater case. A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said McDougal is being housed at Sybil Brand because it is the only facility available for female inmates.

The district attorney’s office denied any connection between its prosecution of the embezzlement charges and McDougal’s role in the Whitewater case.

“There is no relationship between the district attorney’s office and the Office of Independent Counsel,” Gibbons said. “The only thing the D.A.’s office did was defer its prosecution of Ms. McDougal pending her federal prosecution. This case was filed back in 1993, and we’d like to get to it now and get to trial.”

In 1993, McDougal was charged with grand theft and forgery for allegedly running up thousands of dollars in fraudulent credit card purchases and forging checks while working as an assistant to Mehta’s wife, Nancy, between 1989 and 1992. She pleaded not guilty. McDougal’s motion to have the embezzlement charges dismissed will be heard March 14 in Santa Monica Superior Court.

The embezzlement case has languished while McDougal has been embroiled in the Whitewater investigation. She was jailed on Sept. 9 after refusing to testify before the grand jury and moved to the Carswell Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth after a possibly cancerous lump was detected in her breast, her attorney said.

After McDougal was transferred to Los Angeles for the embezzlement trial, a Superior Court judge granted her permission to return to the medical center, but so far she has remained in her Sybil Brand cell.

Gibbons said it would be too costly to shuttle McDougal between the trial and the Texas facility. Federal authorities could return her to Texas, Gibbons added, if they cover the expenses of bringing her back for her trial in Santa Monica, which is scheduled to begin March 24.