Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 1, 1992 TAG: 9202010113
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY ROB EURE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
EX-ROBB AIDE IN PLEA DEAL
Robert L. Watson on Friday became the second high-ranking aide to U.S. Sen. Charles Robb to agree to plead guilty to helping distribute an illegally taped telephone conversation of Gov. Douglas Wilder.Watson, who was political director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which Robb heads, will appear in a Norfolk federal court on Feb. 13 to admit to minor charges of distributing and conspiring to distribute Wilder's conversation, said his attorney, John Flannery.
Watson and Steven Johnson, former Robb press secretary who pleaded guilty to similar charges last month, played a tape of Wilder's 1988 conversation with a supporter for a Washington Post reporter last spring, according to Johnson.
The idea was to show that Wilder was not an innocent bystander in unfolding allegations about Robb's social life. In the conversation with Tidewater developer Daniel Hoffler, Wilder delighted in recounting newspaper stories linking Robb with drug parties at Virginia Beach. Wilder predicted the reports would ruin Robb's political career.
Robb denies any knowledge of drug use at parties he attended.
Watson will plead guilty to the "infraction" charges, which carry no jail time, but can bring a fine. Johnson was fined $5,000 for his part in the tape affair.
Like Johnson, Watson was never charged.
Watson, Johnson and David K. McCloud, Robb's chief aide, all resigned in the summer after transcripts of the tape became public. Robb has said he told McCloud he did not want the tape leaked from his office. The tape remained in Robb's office for more than two years until McCloud destroyed it in the spring.
Since summer, a federal grand jury in Norfolk has been investigating the affair. Virginia Beach restaurant owner Robert Dunnington pleaded guilty in October to recording the conversation. Dunnington was sentenced to 30 days in a halfway house and fined $500.
McCloud's attorney, Plato Cacheris, did not return phone calls Friday. Neither did Watson, a Portsmouth native who recently landed a job as a political aide with the National Education Association.