Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 7, 1995 TAG: 9503070118
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ALEXANDRIA - The former head of the United Way spent hundreds of thousands of the charity's dollars on his own lavish lifestyle and young girlfriends, federal prosecutors said Monday.
William Aramony and two former United Way of America associates stole more than $1 million to pay for chauffeur-driven gambling sprees and an elegant New York City apartment for Aramony's 17-year-old girlfriend, Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Bellows said at the start of Aramony's fraud trial.
Aramony, 67, has pleaded innocent to a September indictment charging him with 53 felony counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering.
Lawyer William Moffitt said the relationship Aramony began with Lori Villasor in the 1980s, when she was 17, was not the sordid affair the government has portrayed.
She continued seeing him after his health deteriorated and after he underwent castration because of cancer, Moffitt said.
His declining health affected his memory, numerical skills and judgment, Moffitt said, noting that in 1986, a neurologist discovered that the frontal lobe of Aramony's brain was shrinking.
- Associated Press
Gingrich half-sister lobbies for gays
WASHINGTON - Newt Gingrich's lesbian half-sister joined gay activists lobbying Congress on Monday. The two of them had a friendly chat at day's end, though she said the ascendancy of his party was what drove her into greater activism.
She said he is not anti-gay but ``maybe uninformed.'' He said he loves her and doesn't ``mix my family with my politics.''
Candace Gingrich, 28, of Harrisburg, Pa., was invited to join the lobbying effort of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the nation's largest gay and lesbian political group.
- Associated Press
by CNB