ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, January 3, 1996             TAG: 9601030080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-5  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press 

WATT PLEADS GUILTY IN HUD INVESTIGATION

Former Interior Secretary James G. Watt pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempting to influence the federal grand jury investigating the 1980s influence-peddling scandal at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Watt, who previously pleaded innocent, was facing 18 felony counts of perjury and making false statements to cover up his work as a consultant seeking HUD aid after he left government in 1983.

His plea today reduced that to one misdemeanor conviction of withholding information and documents from the grand jury in June 1990. He faces a possible sentence of up to six months and a maximum fine of $5,000.

As part of his plea, Watt has agreed to pay a $5,000 fine, said one of his attorneys, William Bradford Reynolds.

Watt was indicted after an investigation by independent counsel Arlin Adams into corruption at HUD during the Reagan administration under then-secretary, Samuel Pierce. The investigation yielded 16 convictions and more than $2 million in fines.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth scheduled a sentencing hearing for March 12.

LENGTH: Short :   36 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Former Interior Secretary James Watt gives a 
          thumbs-up as he arrives with an unidentified woman at U.S. District 
          Court in Washington on Tuesday.