'We Just Plain Licked 'Em'

After a long trial, the jury lets Bert Lance go

The trial was as meandering as the Suwannee River. For 16 weeks, lawyers argued their cases before Atlanta Judge Charles A. Moye Jr.--with the help of courtroom bombast, some 20,000 documents and 173 witnesses, including testimonials from luminaries like Lillian Carter. Finally, after mulling over the evidence for eight days, the jurors last week reached a verdict. They found former Budget Director Bert Lance not guilty on nine counts of bank fraud, but deadlocked on three other counts of banking violations. As the jurors filed out of the courtroom, several of them waved at Lance and his wife LaBelle. Beamed Lance afterward: "We just plain licked 'em." The next day he reported that his close friend Jimmy Carter had congratulated him in almost the same words he used in 1977, only weeks before Lance resigned from the Administration. Carter's message last week: "Bert, I'm still proud of you."

Lance and three business associates originally had been charged with 33 counts of conspiracy, false financial statements and misapplication of bank funds from 1970 to 1978. During much of that time he had served as president of either the Calhoun (Ga.) First National Bank or of Atlanta's National Bank of Georgia. After the prosecution finished its case three weeks ago, Judge Moye dismissed the conspiracy charge and 13 other counts because of insufficient evidence. The remaining charges accused Lance of misusing bank funds in making improperly secured loans totaling about $1 million to his wife, son and friends and of submitting false financial statements to influence loans. At the heart of the case was Lancelot, a partnership that Lance and his wife established in 1973, ostensibly to make charitable contributions. But the prosecution claimed that in 1974, Lance buried personal debts of $710,000 in Lancelot so that he would appear more wealthy when applying for loans.

Lance denied the charges, as well as any intention of hurting the banks. In an emotional summation that left some jurors weeping, Defense Attorney Nickolas P. Chilivis told them: "Those folks in Washington can't understand how we trust folks down here. If you find Mr. Lance guilty of anything, you will have ruined the reputation, life and character of one of the South's finest men."

The jury apparently agreed. Said Juror William Savage, 37, a carpenter: "We knew the financial statements were wrong, but there wasn't enough evidence to show that he had actually intended to make false statements." Anthony Tigner, 25, a railroad porter, admitted that the jury was leaning toward conviction on at least one charge, but added, "Certain people felt the defendants were not guilty, regardless of the evidence."

The Justice Department can still request a retrial of Lance on the three remaining charges, which involve two allegedly false financial statements and a $12,000 loan to one of the codefendants. Chilivis thinks another trial is unlikely. Said he of Government investigators: "They spent three years and about $7 million to end up with 27 acquittals out of the original 33 counts." Indeed, over the past three years, Lance has been investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Election Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the U.S. Senate. Said Lance: "As far as I'm concerned, I've been totally and completely exonerated."

Not quite. Rather than contest a Government civil suit against him two years ago, Lance signed a consent agreement promising not to violate banking laws in the future. Moreover, the federal investigation of his finances prompted Congress in 1978 to enact a law that put strict limits on banks' transactions with their executives. Bert Lance can never return to his old ways of doing business.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.