Show : The Herald Journal Logan Utah Sunday October 26 2003 — A9 Q Utah Let Trane and JM Mechanical ' Give You Up To APphoto Witnesses wit! testify from the witness box foreground shown inside the federal courtroom Friday where next week's Olympic bribery trial will take place hi Salt Lake City Tom Welch who was president of the Salt Lake bid and organizing committees and Dave Johnson who was senior vice president are fighting 15 felony charges that could land them 75 years in prison Olympic bid leaders bank on jury trial for acquittal By Paul Foy ' Ssh : Associated Press Writer - SALT LAKE CITY — Years after the scandal captured die Olympic yg world’s attention and long after die games are over the stage is set for the federal trial of two I executives who headed Salt Lake’s campaign for die 2002 Winter Olympics Jt :& The trial which opens Tuesday is unlikely to be cut short by a plea deal which the defen- dants rejected twice before and the government has yet to renew Both sides seemed embold- ened and die judge says they’re well prepared battle before a Utah jury v “I’m not looking for a deal and I don’t expect one Nor do I want one” says Tom : Welch 59 who was president of the Salt Lake j S'-?bid and organizing committees Welch and Dave Johnson 44 who was senior vice president are fighting 15 felony charges that could land them 75 years in " prison They dis- what they pute not did but the govern- -' ment’s version of why they did iL '7 Thousands bid-riggi- ng V ( Offer Expires October 31y 2003 ) st' ' 1 With anewheatingsystemyouTl dramatically reduce the cost of your monthly utility biJL v-- -- ' CalllfmDetails R& fi 'fn ' X ? !' M of pages of in Help ' us participate ' ' Questar’s “Green Sticker” 'v ' program and conserve ' - evi-den- ce show die bid executives doled out $1 million in cash gifts travel family scholar- - ships medical care: deals and more on Inter- national Olympic Committee gates who awarded Utah the games that turned a $100 million profit But it wasn’t bribery Welch and Johnson always insisted it was the Olympic way of business the way all bid cities did it die way some cultures expected and the revelations that grew from a single leaked memo forced changes at the IOC “It was open and notorious that people in the IOC were treated like royalty” Max Wheeler Johnson’s defense lawyer told a federal magistrate who refused to dismiss charges Welch and Johnson insist that in spite of denials their board members including Utah Gov Mike Leavitt knew of the gifts Leavitt is among those scheduled to testify and be may have to travel from Washington DC to do it Leavitt is President Bush’s embattled nominee to lead the US Environmental Protection Agency Wheeler ran down a list of perks lie said IOC members expected from Salt Lake — the finest Utah Jazz seats Lake Powell hotels front-rohelicopter jaunts and fancy gifts If the IOC really wanted to enforce its gift rules “we’d all be in jail” he said “The point is the line (was) never drawn” Welch ami Johnson were indicted in 2000 by a federal grand jury on charges of bribery racketeering conspiracy and mail wire and fraud They were also accused of violating the Travel Act by lobbying IOC delegates overseas The Justice Department insists die case boils down to “boldface bribes” not cordial gifts sealing friendships as the defense has made diem out To drive home the point US attorneys are expected to hammer at trial they filed e one court brief that used the word “bribery” nine times often with emphatic modifiers like “outright” and “unmistakable” “The United States has ab interest in demonstrating that it will not tolerate corruption in the competition for the selection of host cities for the Olympic Games” Justice Department appeals attorney Richard Friedman wrote in another brief Welch and Johnson seem just as intent to win acquittal as the Justice Department is to test its case on a new front organized crime-lik- e Utah federal Judge David Sam found the' case such a stretch for Olympic bidding he threw it out in 2001 sparing Salt Lake City the embarrassment of a courtroom spectacle lead- - Federal Judge David Sam poees for his portrait taken in 1998 in Salt Lake City Sam will oversee the Olympic bribery trial that begins next week once-loo- se “honest-ser- vices” nine-pag- ing up to the February 2002 games Finally the success of the games which brought home a record 34 medals after the terror attacks seemed to bury the scandal Even Hollywood studios lost interest dropscandal movies timed ping two for the torch run The bid affair was traded for a FrenchRuss-ian judging scandal on die ice rink Possibly die only winner to come out of the bid scandal was Mitt Romney who was tonight in to turn around the organizing committee and used it to win election as Massachusetts governor By then the bid scandal was all but forgotten But last April the 10th Circuit US Court of Appeals in Denver reversed Sam and ordered die bid leaders to stand trial When Sam welcomed back lawyers this month for a pretrial conference he said “I never thought I’d see you again” ' Welch has seen his share of tragedy since the Olympic games In June his daughter unexpectedly died after a foot operation And Welch is getting divorired from his second wife a California widow he married in 1999 Welch says his separation from Susan Sutter was amicable Welch a business consultant who just returned from a fishing trip to Alaska spends most of his time at his Park City Utah condo Johnson says “I’m just a pingpong ball” though he too seems optimistic Both make it clear they want their day in court and the charges resolved Johnson handles sales for Swenson Media a Salt Lake company owned by medical devices billionaire James L Sorenson that’s promoting its video conferencing technology for the oeaf Welch and Johnson received financial settle- -' ments from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee after their firings and the committee’s insurer is paying millions of dollars for their legal fees Both rejected government plea offers before and after their Indictment to a single count of tax fraud It was only a misde- meaner but prosecutors wouldn't make any promises about prison or probation Now the two men are gambling against 15 felony charges raising the stakes at the same time US Attorney General John Ashcroft is limiting the freedom of prosecutors to strike plea bargains in criminal cases Ashcroft has directed US attorneys to seek the toughest punishment possible against nearly all flag-wavi- y'- tune-u-p precision APphoto j' - 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