Memories....
Posted on 08/12/2009 3:43:12 PM PDT by managusta
Edited on 08/12/2009 3:56:48 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- A former chief of staff for Bill Clinton when he was Arkansas' governor has been charged with attempting to smuggle contraband goods into the state's death row.
Betsey Wright, of Rogers, faces 51 felony charges stemming from her arrest May 22 at the state's Varner Unit. An Arkansas State Police report claims she attempted to smuggle in a box cutter, a pocket knife, tweezers and tattoo needles.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Is this the same Betsy Wright that worked for Hillary to control the women claiming they were nuts and sluts?
Bimbo eruption!
Who was his WH girl/ secretary who lied for him? The name sounds familiar.
tattoo needles but no ink?
A bimbo eruption on death row?
Clintoon been hitting on the ladies of death row?
She was in charge of the 'Bimbo Eruptions'.
With what she knows about Hill & Hill - she should be able to cut herself one heck of a deal!!!
OOPS - I meant Hill & Bill!!
That’s a weird one.
Go Hogs Go...
OMG ... Betsy Wright .. she was in
charge of “bimbo eruptions” when
BillyJeff was in the WH ... ROFL!!
~~~~~~~~
Prosecuting Attorney Steve Dalrymple of Pine Bluff said Wright was charged wtih attempting to take in an ink pen with tweezers and a needle inside; a Swiss Army-style pocketknife of undetermiend size; a “blue box cutter with razor” of undetermined size, and 48 “tattoo needles.” In a phone interview, Dalrymple had referred to these as “tattoo syringes,” but the information faxed to me later indicated they were needles.
Wright declined to comment, though she’d told me weeks ago when we first mentioned a case of potential contraband on Death Row in our Insider column that she was the target of the prison investigation and she said the charge was unfounded.
Her attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig, said: “We’re disappointed that the prosecutor has chosen to file charges. Betsey Wright is innocent. She has been a vehement supporter of prisoners’ rights and often an irritant to prison administration. It’s our feeling that they have decided to take a willfully negative interpretation of some ambiguous circumstances. We intend to fight the charges.”
Dalrymple wouldn’t speculate on the intended use of the items, whether mostly for tattoos or other purposes.
The items were found when Wright was going through the security clearance process for a visit to the unit on May 22. She did not enter a prison unit with them. The needles were found in a Doritos bag that Wright said she’d found lying in a vending machine. She thought she’d found a free snack to take to an inmate.
The filing of charges raises, for one, questions of how often the Correction Department pursues felony charges on contraband, particularly items discovered before entry. I was unable to reach a prison spokesman after office hours.
Dalrymple told me an interview last week that contraband is a routine occurrence in the prison — from drugs, tobacco and alcohol to cell phones. Regular prison visitors tell me that they often see people found in possession of prohibited items who are allowed to take them back to their cars before entry.
Wright was immediately subjected to questioning on the items. I couldn’t get a description from Dalrymple of the knife and box cutter, but hope to be able to obtain photos eventually.
Here’s the full detail of the state’s case,
http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/wrightfile.pdf
released after Districrt Judge Jodi Dennis ruled there was probable cause to issue an arrest warrant. Dalrymple and Rosenzweig had previously reached an agreement for Wright to surrender on the charges next week in Lincoln County and to post a $1,500 bond. Rosenzweig is in Jonesboro this week as part of the defense team seeking to win freedom of the West Memphis Three.
The Wright charges come amid a string of embarrassing prison incidents, from escapes to the fatal shooting of a man attempting to drive away from the unit after a guard discovered he was wanted for failing to make a visit to a parole office.
There was also an incident in which a prisoner was left nearly to die in feces by guards. A criminal investigation of the shooting case remains underway in Dalrymple’s office.
Rosenzweig’s description of prison officials’ view of Wright as an “irritant” is mild. They have been deeply stung by press and legislative criticism and have long resented Wright’s outspoken advocacy.
Some are holdover employees from the days when the Clinton administration fought to reform a prison system riddled with corruption. They are accustomed to running the prisons as a no-questions-asked fiefdom and Wright was not shy about criticizing the small ways in which prison officials can add misery to lives of prisoners by such things as withholding mail or other small privileges.
In the end, pressing charges against Wright might bring more sunshine to a dark world in need of it, even if she was fairly charged.
Wright’s devotion to Death Row cases — obsession many would call it — has caused even some ideological soulmates to distance themselves from Wright at times. She’s spent a sizable portion of her modest means in making regular visits to the prison from her home in Northwest Arkansas.
The charges, specifically, are three class C felonies for attempting to furnish prohibited articles into a correctional facility (the pen with tweezers, knife and box cutter), and 48 class d felonies, the syringes.
http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2009/08/betsey_wright_charged_in_priso.aspx
~~~
She may have a sweetie in prison there ... LOL. In Clintononia, AR? No ...
Too bad Clinton isn’t the Governor so he could obstruct and impede the investigation.
That is a rather exceptional array of edgy and pointy stuff. A ballpoint pen one might forget, but this?
Dust off the list!!!
I’ll say .. and needles found in a Dorito bag?
Memories....
Well if she is smuggling, my guess is she’s still a Clinton aide.
I feel as if Im back in ‘98 again
Funny how the Clinton Administration attracted felons. Is this why Holder wants to investigate Bush officials, so that the Democrats can catch up in the indictment race? Maybe they should hire Patrick Fitzgerald.
I hope the only way they ever let her in prison again isn't just to visit.
sw
fyi
FTA, she’s claiming the items in question were in a Doritos bag she “found”. It’s the Doritos Defense. She had no idea that bag had 48 needles, a box cutter, knife, tweezers and a pen inside! No idea!
who worked more than a decade for Bill Clinton in Arkansas. She was Chief of Staff to Governor Clinton for seven years. In the 1990s, she was Senior Director of The Wexler Group, a government relations firm in Washington, DC. As Deputy Chair of the 1992 Clinton/Gore campaign, Wright established the rapid response system that was responsible for defending Clinton’s record in Arkansas and promptly answering all personal attacks on the candidate. She coined the term “bimbo eruptions” to describe the series of women claiming they had had affairs with Clinton.
In 1990, Wright was elected chair of the Democratic Party of Arkansas and was hired as its Executive Director.
Wright was Executive Director of the National Women’s Education Fund in Washington, DC. While there, she designed, organized and conducted training programs throughout the country for women candidates, campaign managers, and officeholders.
Betty Curry was his secretary. Can’t believe I still remember this gang!
Betty Curry was his secretary. Can’t believe I still remember those names!
Maybe she’s restarting the prisoner blood sale business the crintons had going back in the day.
Any mug shot of this lady?
Correction:
Hill/Billy
I figured one of the old-school folks would have already pinged A-G, and I was right. I was lurking back then.
I dunno... Those big food conglomerates are always coming out with funky products... Maybe they were “tattoo-needle-flavored” Doritos...
Here’s some deja vu for those who aren’t FReeper golden oldies .... segment about Betsy begins at 15:57 ... Charlie Rose interview with David Maraniss about Clinton
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/7038
.
Arkansas idiot ping
Bring back memories?
Talk about a bimbo erupting. One of William Jefferson Criminal’s cronies. Very interesting. Thanks for posting and thanks to every poster/linker/archivist/researcher.
“Who hired Craig Livingstone?” ....if I can manage it those will be the last words I say in this lifetime
Betsey Wright
Hmmmm ... Thanks for the ping!
LOLOL! Thanks for the encouragement!
It certainly does!
He was trying to smuggle the ark out of prison? So that’s where it’s been all these years...
Clinton loved prisoners so much he twice re-opened the blood ‘clinic’ after it was closed down, so prisoners had the right to sell their blood for cigarettes and it ended up going to a blood broker in Montreal.
All other prisons had stopped taking prison blood because of AIDS and Hepatitis C. No other country in the world would take the blood, but Canada because of a loophole.
Blood trade was a very lucrative business and for some reason Clinton didn’t want to stop the flow of tainted blood. It was distributed from Thomas Hecht in Montreal to the world ... spreading AIDS and Hep C not just in Canada, but all over the world.
Thousands died from this blood. Thanks to Arkansas Govenor Bill Clinton.
Little Rock Mafia Ping.
Questions that a good reporter should have asked:
Whom was she signing in to visit? Does that inmate have any history of holding/trading in contraband? A drug record? Any incidents of weapons use in prison? What is that inmate’s previous relationship with Wright — family, political, personal? Does that inmate have or perform tattoos?
Does the prison vending machine sell that flavor of Doritos in that size package? Are the deliveries of vendors to that machine X-rayed or metal detected before those snacks are admitted to the prison? How was the Doritos bag resealed after the contraband was inserted? Tape, glue, heat-seal?
Exactly how large is a tattoo needle that 44 of them can fit in a snack sized bag? Would they have a dual use as drug delivery needles? Would they weigh enough that someone handling the package should notice the difeference in weight?
Is the area where the bag was supposedly found under video surveillance? If not, why not? If so, is there any vindicating video of another visitor ditching the Doritos bag?
Do prison visitors get the same questioning I get at the airport: “Did You pack your bags yourself? Are you carrying any objects from third parties or strangers? Are you carrying any of the following prohibited items... ?”
She should have hid that stuff in her pants like Sandy Burglar.
For a moment, I thought that was a young Bill Clinton.
It’s not her. She was an older black woman.
Some things just get seared into one’s memory.
Is this the same Betsy Wright that worked for Hillary to control the women claiming they were nuts and sluts?
The pivotal character is Libby Hoffman, said to be modelled on Clinton’s longtime Arkansas aide, Betsy Wright. Like Miss Wright, Libby is the person the candidate relies on to minimize the damage whenever the tabloids are after him. As pictured here, she is a lesbian and an expatriate from the local booby hatch. Miss Wright may want to consider suing if she can ever figure out who Anonymous really is.
For that one crime alone he should rot in hell. Imagine all the people that this one crime murdered. He has a lot of so-called accidents on his conscience (well, if he had one, that is).
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