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Show The National Enterprise, May 4, 1977 Page twenty-thre- e Pragmatic Dogmatics Bischoffs Vindication by Kent Shearer Although business exigencies occasioned Douglas G. Bischoffs resignation from this year's State Senate, few believe his political aspirations to be at an end. In fact, quite a number of Republicans (including this writer) wish he would become a candidate for GOP State Chairman. If and when Doug does make a move, it is inevitable that the Kansas City telephone pulling incident ' will rear its head. At the 1976 GOP National Convention, it will be of Utah's recalled, Bischoff was n delegation. In the race, some physical interplay developed and before it was over Bischoff tore out the New York delegations telephone tie-i- n to the Ford communications netw ork. Due to the proximity of this activity to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, Secret Service types then seized Doug, drug him from the convention floor and interrogated him prior to his release. In the aftermath. Rockefeller suggested that Bischoff had been under the influence of alcohol: a charge which caused Doug, an abstainer, to threaten suit. an Ford-Reaga- all-Reag- an The incident died down and Bischoff won his November '76 State Senate race without I I L6N? Mwe LET disturb' ABSO my LUTE CALM. Well, now from an unlikely source comes a recitation of the encounter which, if it does not totally absolve Bischoff, does place major blame upon Rockefeller. The unlikely source is Malcolm D. MacDougall, who handled the Ford post-Kans- City advertising campaign. as MacDougall can by no means be classified as a Reagan adherent. In his recent book, We Almost Made It, he writes of the Reagan Convention demonstration, I didnt like any of these yelling, banner-wavin- g people. There one of them that Id ever w'ant to sit wasnt down and have a beer with. For reasons aforementioned, Bischoff would not join MacDougall in a libation, but he does owre the gentleman a drink for his version of the telephone affair. As MacDougall tells it, he was attempting to do some work in the Ford Kansas City complex, when his concentration was interrupted by female laughter. She was still laughing when room. A plumpish, middle-age- d I entered the man who reminded me of an Irish bartender wras laughing with her. They pointed to the television set when they saw me. Nelson Rockefeller was on the screen, holding up a telephone with a broken cord dangling from it. Edwin Newman, the NBC announcer, seemed to be enjoying the scene almost as much as my fellow' viewers. I think hes drunk,' the laughing girl said. Naw', hes just raising hell, bartender said, They described Hes the Irish just having a good time. the scene Id missed. Nelson Rockefeller had suddenly reached back and yanked a Reagan sign out of a delegates hand. He had then proceeded to break the sign across his knee and shove it under the seat. The ensuing pushing and shouting was typical of all party conventions through the years. But it was probably the first time that the Vice President of the United States had started it. It had ended when the Reagan delegate yanked the Ford telephone out of the wall. there you have it. Bischoff is vindicated by an authentic liberal observer. I just hope that Doug's future adversaries dont say that this makes him a closet liberal. So I VOtiT LET MM HDSBAUPS o&vse-m-ss UOIHIU& Of difficulty. Politicians have long memories and unforgiving souls, however, and as Ive said his actions at the Kansas City conclave, just recited, will be raised in the future by any who for one reason or another oppose him. DISTURB CALM- - y, t MY CALM. am OfJLYOE LET MY TUI VHMTt&S PBCURE& i cam ur ' HYLALM. pm MY CALM. Speedy Trial and White Collar Crime z I- oa. tr LU H Z z O o by Parker M. Nielsen During his campaign President Carter spoke often of the need to improve the judiciary. White collar crooks should not go free, he said, while poor people go to jail. Chief Justice Burger has also been a champion of a streamlined judiciary, and Congress has taken up the cause, enacting speedy trial statutes and looking into other means to speed up the judicial process. It seems to reflect the mood of the day. At the same time, the ancient institution of the Grand Jury is Originated as a being revived to combat the problem. protection for the accused, the Grand Jury is increasingly used as an investigative device by prosecutors dealing with white collar crime. Reluctant witnesses are subpoenaed before the tribunal, without the benefit of counsel, where the prosecutor can build a careful case in secret against his prospective defendants. The Justice Department, in response to public outrage that such crimes usually go unpunished, is busily engaged in setting up task forces to attack white collar crime. In large cities there are even special units within the U.S. Attorneys Office where the "elite of the prosecution staff concentrate on nothing else. hat started out as a good thing can prove to be bad, however, for all crimes are not the same and treating them as if they are can lead to bad results. Too much of w an Consider the defendant in a complex criminal case antitrust case or securities case, to cite two examples. These cases are very unlike those charging a single issue offense such as a bank robbery. They involve facts as complex as the business world in which they originate. Because of the use of the Grand Jury, such defendants will not be accorded a preliminary hearing at which they can get a look at the evidence assembled against them. Then, after an indictment has been returned the speedy trial statute may wisk them before a jury before they have a chance to analyze the charges that have been lodged against them. A speedy trial is not less important to these defendants but a trial within 60 days of arraignment, which is the goal of the speedy trial statute, may leave them and their counsel still groping for the legal meaning of concepts like affilitated person of an investment advisor, "open end management company and relevant the jail cells close behind them. as market It is a join in the effort to attack white collar crime. worthwhile goal and one which is long overdue. In our haste to enforce the law against the crooks of the business community the time honored concept of due process should not be lost sight of, however. It is far too easy for an eager prosecutor to combine the speedy trial statute with the Grand Jury in such a way that it denies the white collar defendant anything that resembles a fair trial. As with other crimes, a significant number of those accused will, in fact, be innocent and societys stake in seeing that they are afforded a fair trial is at least as great as seeing that the guilty are punished. I First, restrict, if not suggest themselves: eliminate the prosecutors access to the Grand Jury. He has no need of it, for he can file an information as simply as he signs his name and the current use of it is a corruption of its original purpose. Second, make the postponement of trial for a reasonable period of investigation, which the speedy trial statute now contemplates as a discretionary matter for the trial judge, more of an option of the defendant upon a showing of a real need for additional time. Two solutions |