Judgement day!
Posted on 11/09/2004 9:55:42 AM PST by Constitution Day
Ballance expected to plead guilty to mishandling public money
By STEVE HARTSOE, Associated Press Writer
November 9, 2004 12:05 pm
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Frank Ballance, the former U.S. congressman who resigned from his eastern North Carolina seat this summer, is to plead guilty Tuesday to a federal corruption charge related to mishandling of money by his charitable foundation, his lawyer said.
Ballance, a 62-year-old Democrat, was in his first term representing the 1st Congressional District when he resigned in June, citing ill health.
His lawyer, Joseph B. Cheshire V said Ballance would enter his plea at an arraignment Tuesday afternoon in federal court in Elizabeth City.
"What he's saying is there will be sufficient evidence submitted to a jury that would allow the jury to conclude that something wrong might have happened, and he is going to take responsibility for that," Cheshire said in a phone interview.
Cheshire said Ballance's anticipated plea is not an admission of every crime with which the government charged him in a 51-page indictment issued in September.
"The allegations may involve millions of dollars. What he's accepting responsibility for is a very small part of that," Cheshire said.
Ballance is expected to serve three to five years in prison after sentencing next year, according to Cheshire.
The indictment alleged that Ballance channeled $2.3 million in state money from 1994 to 2003 to a nonprofit foundation he operated to help poor people fight drug and alcohol abuse.
According to the felony indictment, more than $100,000 from the John A. Hyman Memorial Youth Foundation went to Ballance's law firm; his church; his mother, Alice Eason Ballance; his daughter, Valerie Ballance, and his son, Garey Ballance.
Garey Ballance, a state District Court judge, is awaiting arraignment on a charge of failing to file his 2000 income tax return.
The indictment said Ballance repeatedly forged the foundation director's signature on state money requests and said he diverted foundation money to pay a $15,500 legal bill in a criminal case and more than $69,000 in rent to his church, which housed the foundation's office.
The indictment said Ballance also dipped into foundation money to give his son $20,000 toward a Lincoln Navigator luxury sport utility vehicle; to pay his daughter $5,000 for computer services she didn't perform; and to give his mother $143,250 to spend on community programs.
The lone formal charge against Ballance encompasses three elements: that he conspired to deprive the state's citizens of his honest services as a state senator; that he defrauded the Hyman Foundation of money; and that he hid self-dealing expenditures.
Besides an expected prison sentence, Ballance faces a fine of up to $250,000, federal prosecutors said.
Cheshire said Ballance has no money to pay such a fine.
Judgement day!
He was my congressman for a while, he was awful, didn't care about anything. Knew the district was cut so he couldn't lose
He was mine too. I live near Rocky Mount.
this is why private agencies help the poor bettter than public ones...
I thought he resigned to 'spend more time with his family'.
He said he had a condition called myasthenia gravis, but it was more like fraudatio gravis.
Ballance, son sentenced to prison. ( A two-for, judge taken down too)
By CHRIS WHIPPLE
Thursday, October 13, 2005 Former Congressman Frank Ballance was sentenced to four years in federal prison Wednesday for conspiring to misuse thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds. U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle also sentenced the former Democratic congressman in Federal Court in Elizabeth City to two years of supervised release and fined him $10,000. Ballance, 63, had faced up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years' supervised release. "I want to apologize to the court, to my family and to all the people I represented," Ballance said in remarks to the court Wednesday. "Because – I call it a mistake, but they were violations of the law ...." In November, Balance pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering. As part of a plea arrangement, Ballance also agreed to pay restitution to the state in the amount of $61,917.25. Ballance, who resigned from Congress in June 2004, was indicted by a federal grand jury three months later following a federal probe of the John A. Hyman Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit anti-drug abuse agency he founded in 1994. Over nine years, Ballance's foundation received more than $2.2 million in state funds. According to the indictment, Ballance forged the foundation director's signature on numerous requests for state funds. He also diverted thousands of dollars intended for the foundation to himself, his family and his church. As part of his plea arrangement, Ballance was ordered to turn over some $200,000 in Hyman Foundation funds to the state. Boyle also sentenced Ballance's son, state District Court Judge Garey Ballance, on Wednesday. Garey Ballance, who cooperated in a federal grand jury investigation of his father's Hyman Foundation, was sentenced to nine months in federal prison, and one year of supervised release. He was also fined $5,000. A federal grand jury had charged Garey Ballance with attempting to conceal from the IRS more than $20,000 in state funds his father had given him and which were used as a down payment on a $50,000 Lincoln Navigator. Frank Ballance rode in that vehicle in his 2002 campaign for Congress, loaning his son his Mercedes-Benz during that time, prosecutors said. During his appearance in court on Wednesday, Frank Ballance apologized to his son for involving him in a crime that would ultimately send him to prison. "I have to apologize to a lot of people because they were depending on me," Ballance said. "My son depended on me when I told him to write that check ... a lot of people depended on me ... I'm sorry to my mother, because of those principles she instilled in me. I violated some of them." Despite his precipitous fall from power, the former lawmaker still found something to be upbeat about. "One thing I'm proud of," Ballance said, "is the thousands of friends who are praying for me. And the thing I'm proudest of is – Gary's a good guy. He believes in his father." As part of an arrangement with the U.S. Attorney's Office earlier this year, Garey Ballance pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of failing to file his 2000 income tax return. Afterward, on the courthouse steps, the disgraced former congressman clasped his mother's shoulder and held her close while talking with reporters. Ballance was asked if he might return to politics when he gets out of prison. "Why not," Ballance quipped. "You've known some politicians who ran when they were 68, didn't you? How old was (Ronald) Reagan when he first ran for president?" Ballance turns 64 in November. The ex-congressman will begin his sentence by Dec. 30. Agreeing to a request by Ballance's attorneys, Boyle recommended that both Ballances be housed at the federal prison in Butner. It was not immediately clear how long Garey Ballance will keep his job as a state judge after his sentencing Wednesday. The younger Ballance did not address reporters following his appearance in court.
Former N.C. congressman (D) sentenced to four years in prison
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