
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 27, 1993                   TAG: 9310270010
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

FORMER HUD EXECUTIVE GUILTY OF FRAUD, PAYOFF

Deborah Gore Dean, a central figure in the Reagan-era HUD scandal, was convicted Tuesday of 12 felony counts of defrauding the government, taking a payoff and lying to Congress.

The former executive assistant to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Samuel Pierce could be sentenced to a maximum 57 years in prison and $3 million in fines. Her sentencing was set for Jan. 19 by U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan.

Dean, 38, was the 10th person in the HUD scandal to be convicted through trial or guilty pleas. Pierce, who disclaimed knowledge of the high-level misdeeds in his department, has not been charged.

Dean was depicted at her trial as being instrumental with others in funneling millions of dollars to housing projects that benefited politically connected Republicans.

"Defendant Dean took a program designed to aid low-income families, and instead used it to benefit herself, her family, and her friends," said independent counsel Arlin M. Adams, who prosecuted the case.

"By betraying the public trust in this manner, Ms. Dean committed a crime no less serious than the street crimes that plague our nation," Adams said.

Prosecutors told the jury that Dean stood at the center of "a partnership in crime" that enriched her family and friends, including Richard Nixon's former attorney general, John Mitchell.

She testified that she was the contact point for politically well-connected developers. But, she said, Pierce was the one who made all the decisions about where to send "mod-rehab housing."

Dean was executive assistant to Pierce from 1984 to 1987 when the agency was parceling out federal money under its moderate-rehabilitation housing program.

She was convicted of three counts of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government, one count of accepting an illegal gratuity from a consultant and eight counts of lying about her activities at HUD.

In her testimony, she blamed Pierce and other HUD officials for deciding to funnel housing to developers who hired consultants like former Gov. Louie Nunn, R-Ky., who testified that he got $644,000 for very little work.

Dean is a cousin of Vice President Al Gore and a niece of one-time Maryland Republican leader Louise Gore.

by CNB