ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 7, 1995                   TAG: 9507070055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

COURT CHOOSES COUNSEL FOR PROBE

A retired Florida appellate judge who once served as a federal prosecutor was named Thursday to investigate the finances of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown - the fourth independent counsel examining top Clinton administration figures.

Now in private practice in Miami, Daniel S. Pearson, 64, was selected by the special three-judge court empowered to pick such investigators under the independent counsel act.

Attorney General Janet Reno had asked the court in May to name a counsel to determine whether Brown improperly accepted nearly $500,000 from a business partner and whether he deliberately filed inaccurate financial disclosure statements and a misleading mortgage statement.

The court ordered Pearson to determine if Brown committed a federal felony in those three areas. He is charged with investigating Brown's acceptance of money or things of value from partner Nolanda Hill or her firm First International Inc.; Brown's financial disclosure reports; and his application for a mortgage to finance a townhouse purchase in January 1993.

The court also allowed Pearson to investigate whether Hill, a Washington businesswoman, committed any federal felony through First International or any of her other operations.

Brown's attorney, Reid Weingarten, said Pearson ``has a reputation for being scholarly, experienced and fair, and I'm looking forward to working with him.''

``The allegations are politically inspired and they have no substance, and I am confident'' Pearson's investigation ``will conclusively and finally put them to rest,'' Weingarten said.

Born in New York, Pearson graduated from Amherst College and Yale Law School. He was an assistant U.S. attorney in Miami in 1961-63, handling criminal appeals. In 1967, he established his own law firm and did criminal defense work. From 1980 to 1989, he was a judge on Florida's Third District Court of Appeal in Miami. Since then, he has been with the influential Holland & Knight law firm in Miami.

Rep. William Clinger, R-Pa., who ran a congressional inquiry into Brown and called for an independent counsel in February, offered cooperation as Pearson begins ``the hard work of unraveling Mr. Brown's complex and convoluted financial dealings.'' 


 by CNB