Judge Grants Hiatus in McDougal Trial

A Superior Court judge in Santa Monica on Friday ordered a two-week hiatus between jury selection and opening statements in the Susan McDougal embezzlement trial to allow her attorney time to peruse new Internal Revenue Service documents and more than 15,000 pages of paperwork found at the home of her alleged victim.

The evidence was discovered by a district attorney’s investigator in the wake of a July 24 pretrial hearing, prosecutors said during a procedural hearing Friday.

McDougal, a former business partner of President Clinton in the Whitewater land deal, is accused of stealing about $150,000 from Nancy Mehta, the wife of former Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Zubin Mehta.

Judge Leslie W. Light refused to grant McDougal’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, a four-week delay and said he wanted a speedy conclusion of the court’s oldest pending case, filed nearly five years ago.

“It isn’t going to get started until it gets started,” said Light.

Jury selection begins Monday.

McDougal, who was present at the hearing, stood up several times during the proceedings, apparently to alleviate back pain. She was recently fitted with a brace by her doctors in Arkansas, and Light agreed to let her use an orthopedic chair during the trial.

McDougal is accused of forging Nancy Mehta’s name on a credit card application, then using the card for personal purchases. She also allegedly forged checks and used several of the Mehtas’ credit cards.