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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 14, 1994                   TAG: 9409150022
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

2ND WHITEWATER COMPLAINT FILED

A Virginia housewife Tuesday said that she has filed a formal complaint against Judge David Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit over a lunch the judge had with two Republican senators while a panel he heads was considering the appointment of the Whitewater independent counsel.

Sara Ruschaupt, 56, of Great Falls, said she sent the complaint to Judge Harry Edwards, who will become chief judge of the appellate court within the next month. In her letter, she asks for Edwards to review the propriety of the July 14 lunch Sentelle had with North Carolina Republican Sens. Lauch Faircloth and Jesse Helms.

Although complaints about judicial conduct are kept secret and filed under seal, Ruschaupt is the second person known to have filed one against Sentelle over last month's appointment of Kenneth Starr to replace special prosecutor Robert Fiske. Earlier this month, Frank Mandanici, a public defender in New Haven, Conn., said he filed a similar complaint.

``I am filing this complaint as an ordinary citizen who is getting sick and tired of this,'' Ruschaupt said, referring to conservatives who ``try to dictate your values ... even what you read.''

She said her complaint also challenges Starr as the panel's choice because of his openly critical assessment of President Clinton's defense in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment lawsuit.

Ruschaupt, a registered Democrat and retired CIA clerk who described herself as a housewife, said she has ``no ax to grind with the courts'' and does not know Sentelle. ``It just strikes me as blatantly unfair,'' she said.

Sentelle denied that he discussed the appointment during the lunch with Helms and Faircloth, a vocal critic of Fiske's early findings in the investigation of the Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan. Madison was owned by James McDougal, the Clintons' partner in the Whitewater development in Arkansas.

The judge said in a statement that the men discussed country music, cowboy boots and prostate problems. His secretary Tuesday said Sentelle is prohibited from commenting on citizen complaints.

Under the court's complaint process, the chief judge conducts a review, then decides whether the matter requires a full-scale investigation.

by CNB