Jury Chosen for McDougal Embezzlement Trial

A jury of seven women and five men has been chosen in Santa Monica Superior Court to hear evidence in the embezzlement trial of Whitewater figure Susan McDougal.

The former business associate of President Clinton is accused of taking about $150,000 from former Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife, Nancy, when she worked for them. McDougal is accused of forging Nancy Mehta’s signature on checks and taking out a credit card in her name to purchase clothes, trips and luxuries for herself.

Attorneys are still choosing alternate jurors, and testimony is scheduled to begin Sept. 8, a court spokeswoman said.

Superior Court Judge Leslie Light has said the trial should last about a month.

McDougal was convicted of fraud and conspiracy for her role in the failed Whitewater land deal. She served about three months of a two-year sentence for those crimes, but actually spent more time behind bars for refusing to testify against President Clinton in the Whitewater inquiry.

McDougal’s lawyer, Mark Garagos, contends that the California case is politically motivated, and was filed in an effort to pressure McDougal into testifying before the Whitewater grand jury.

But Light has ruled that Whitewater bears no relevance to the Mehta case, and has excluded testimony about Whitewater, independent counsel Kenneth Starr and President Clinton.

McDougal worked as a personal assistant to Nancy Mehta from 1989 to 1993--before the Whitewater scandal broke.

She is expected to testify in her own defense.