Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 15, 1994 TAG: 9410170051
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The decision to open what is known as a preliminary inquiry gives the Justice Department 90 days to decide whether to ask that a special prosecutor be appointed to conduct a full investigation.
For the last 30 days, Justice investigators were trying to decide merely whether the allegations were specific and credible.
``It doesn't at all surprise us given the limited nature of the language in the statute,'' Cisneros' lawyer, Cono Namorato, said of the decision. ``We remain very confident the investigation will go nowhere.''
Investigators have been looking at whether Cisneros understated the amount of the payments during background interviews with FBI agents as part of his nomination to be HUD secretary.
Cisneros, who was in Oakland, Calif., for a community-development symposium, relayed a statement through his lawyer:
``While I had hoped that this matter would end during the first stage of the inquiry, given the limited scope of that stage I understand why it has moved into the next phase. I have made mistakes in judgment in my personal life, but I have always adhered to the law.
``I have not allowed this matter to distract me from my duties. My lawyers will deal with this matter while I continue to focus on the housing problems of our nation's communities.''
The inquiry centers on taped conversations between Cisneros and his former lover, Linda Medlar, in which they fretted over whether his nomination would be derailed once FBI agents learned of the payments.
``The issue now is not whether assistance was provided to Ms. Medlar, the propriety of such assistance or the secretary's disclosures about those matters,'' Namorato said. ``The focus of the investigation appears to be the details of the timing and amounts of the assistance.''
Medlar sued Cisneros for fraud and breach of contract in July, alleging he reneged on a verbal agreement to pay her $4,000 a month until her teen-age daughter graduated from college. She sought $256,000 and unspecified punitive damages.
Cisneros, the former mayor of San Antonio, denied having an agreement with Medlar, a former San Antonio political consultant who now lives in Lubbock, Texas. He said he gave her money out of compassion.
by CNB