Mecham Pleads Not Guilty in Fraud Case

PHOENIX —  In a crowded but hushed courtroom, embattled Gov. Evan Mecham pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of fraud, perjury and filing a false statement in connection with a $350,000 campaign loan.

“As to the charges sir, how do you plead?” Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Patrick O’Neil asked Mecham during the early morning arraignment proceedings. “Not guilty,” Mecham responded quietly.

Mecham also faces an almost certain recall election and is the subject of impeachment hearings in the Arizona House.

On Friday his former personal security chief told a House select impeachment committee that the governor lied repeatedly on television, causing a number of committee members to question whether they can believe the governor when he testifies before them.

Hours after Mecham entered his plea on perjury and fraud charges, Lt. Charles (Beau) Johnson told the committee that Mecham lied when he said in two television interviews that he had not been told the details of a death threat made by a member of his staff.

Related Death Threat

Johnson, a security staffer under the three previous governors, told the 10-member panel that he informed the governor of a death threat by Lee Watkins, then director of prison construction, against an aide who was testifying before a grand jury investigating the governor.

Johnson said he took the threats seriously because an earlier background check disclosed that Watkins had previous felony convictions, including one for assault.

House members, who heard the testimony in connection with allegations that Mecham attempted to block a grand jury investigation into the threats, were dismayed.

“I think it’s clear to every member here that on two different press conferences on television, the governor did not tell the truth,” said David C. Bartlett (D-Tucson).

“I’ll still wait to hear the testimony of others, particularly the governor, before I make a conclusion, but I think the governor’s got an uphill road in discussing this one.”

On Wednesday, Ralph Milstead, Johnson’s boss and director of the Department of Public Safety, told the committee that in an angry telephone call two days after the governor had been informed of the threat, Mecham ordered him not to allow Johnson and another security officer to talk to the attorney general’s office about the threat.

Milstead testified that the governor told him not to cooperate with the attorney general’s office and to transfer Johnson because of his actions. Johnson was transferred immediately.

Bartlett and other members said that, based on what they had heard, they were concerned about what they could believe when the governor testifies as expected.

Committee Chairman Jim Skelly (R-Scottsdale) said that, although he was still waiting to hear the governor, “I think the evidence thus far is extremely damaging.”

“In my mind, I have no doubt that what (the witnesses) are describing constitutes a crime.”

Earlier Friday, a subdued Mecham pleaded not guilty to six felony charges in connection with the campaign loan from Tempe developer Barry Wolfson.

Two Indicted on Jan. 8

Mecham and his brother and campaign chairman, Willard, were indicted Jan. 8 on three felony charges of perjury, fraud and false filing for allegedly trying to conceal the loan in a 1986 financial disclosure statement.

Willard Mecham, 67, also pleaded not guilty.

The governor faces three additional felony charges for allegedly trying to hide the loan again in a 1987 financial disclosure statement.

Mecham and his brother were released without bail, but the governor cannot leave the state without court permission unless he is performing official state business in his capacity as governor.

Asked by a reporter if he was confident that he would be found innocent, the governor replied: “Hell yes, I’m confident. I’m not guilty.”

The impeachment committee is also investigating the loan, as well as allegations that the governor used $80,000 in public funds to bail out his Pontiac dealership.

Mecham maintains that the money, raised at an inaugural affair, was not public funds, but private.

On Monday, Secretary of State Rose Mofford is to announce whether she has received enough valid signatures to force a recall election, and unofficial numbers show more than enough names.

The governor will then have five days to resign or face a recall election, probably in mid-May.

Mecham has said repeatedly that he will not step down. Instead, he said in an interview with the Tucson Citizen that he has begun putting together a $2.5-million war chest for his recall campaign.

“I’m going to be the one that outspends anybody else,” he said.

Mecham, who drew guffaws when he disclosed recently that he thought laser beams were being used to spy on him, said his political and legal problems are the result of “master planning” to oust him.