The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 3

THE COURIER-JOURNAL, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1993 A7: Pearman pleads guilty to failing to report donation 1 wwm.wwnis!w'!; 1 www'm ft ilyW A iJS 5' KENTUCKY 1 'Ml i 1 H. 1 By TOM LOFTUS Staff Writer LEXINGTON, Ky. Former state legislator Virgil Pearman pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge of mail fraud in connection with $3,000 he accepted in 1990 from a lobbyist for hospital giant Humana Inc. Peatman's sentencing was set for Feb. 15 in Frankfort.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Hood allowed Pearman to remain free without bond. Pearman, a Radcliff Democrat, is the third former lawmaker to plead guilty to charges stemming from the federal investigation into Humana's intense lobbying effort in 1990. Humana sought approval of a bill to ease state controls over hospital expansion in Jefferson County. Pearman's indictment, issued Nov.

10, charged that he took a $3,000 cash campaign contribution from Humana lobbyist Ron Adams after the 1990 session, but kept the money instead of putting it in his campaign fund. Pearman committed mail fraud when he mailed a campaign finance report that failed to disclose the contribution from Adams. "I'm very sorry. I made a mistake. I accept full responsibility for it," Pearman told Hood.

When Hood asked him to explain what he had done wrong, Pearman insisted that he did not take the money in exchange for any of his votes. Pearman said a chain of unusual circumstances led him to make the mistake of not returning the money. He said he was away from the office of his Radcliff contracting business when a man delivered the money "in a plain blank envelope." "If I had opened it that day I would've given it back," he said. But he did not return until a few days later, when he was told that "some tall guy" had delivered the envelope. Pearman said Adams called him later and asked if he had gotten the contribution.

Pearman said he had put the cash in his office safe. And because of pressing business and personal matters "my attention got off that. It became less important, I guess." When FBI agents confronted Pearman about the matter this year, they discovered that most of the $3,000 had been spent, said Steve STAFF PHOTO BY MICHAEL HAYMAN Tipper Gore shook hands with John Sayre yesterday at the St. John Day Center for the homeless In Louisville. At the same table were Edward Petty, left, and Robert McClure.

Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson stood behind Gore. Flipping over Tipper Gore talks issues, gets celebrity treatment during visit ASSOCIATED PRESS Virgil Pearman left court In Lexington yesterday. Pence, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District of Kentucky. Pence confirmed that Pearman cooperated fully with investigators.

Pearman entered a plea agreement with federal prosecutors which Pearman said yesterday calls for prosecutors to recommend no jail time. But Pearman said he understood that Hood will ultimately decide the sentence. The maximum penalty would be five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. After yesterday's hearing, Pear-man's attorney, Bart Adams of Louisville, stressed that the $3,000 "was absolutely not a bribe." Adams said Pearman voted for the so-called Humana Bill in the 1990 session because Pearman always voted for legislation supported by Humana. Asked why Ron Adams decided to give Pearman the money, Bart Adams said, "That's a question you'll have to ask Ron Adams." Ron Adams has declined to discuss the indictments.

The source of the money paid by Humana representatives to Pearman and two other former legislators who pleaded guilty has never been disclosed by prosecutors. Pearman, 60, was serving as senator from the 10th District in 1990 when he took the money. He served stints in the House before and after that Senate term. He resigned his 26th District House seat last summer after he was questioned by the FBI. By BEVERLY BARTLETT Staff Writer Steven Hampton, who vows to make this his last homeless year, waited for the vice president's wife at the St.

John Day Center yesterday with a question in mind. He said he wanted to ask: "Will NAFTA create a climate of jobs that will help the homeless people get out of their situation?" But when Tipper Gore walked into the room a move that prompted the crowd to hush and a cameraman to cry "she's wearing red," and Hampton was actually shaking her hand and looking into her eyes, he asked a different question: "I asked her why she didn't bring Hillary with her." Gore laughed and replied, "She's doing something else today. I'll tell her you said hello." The exchange lasted just a moment, but somehow seemed to embody the twin roles of the spouses of President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. They are touted as partners in the administration and given important jobs, like Tipper Gore's position as the mental-health adviser to the White House health-care reform task force, but they're also celebrities. Gore has recently been featured in weight-loss articles.

Lisa Douglas, a 30-year-old woman who has been homeless for about two months, seemed a little flabbergasted after her encounter with Gore, as if she'd just met a movie star instead of a serious politician. She could barely relate the exchange. "She said, 'Hi, how ya Let me think, it tickled me so much, I said, 'What's up, and she was real friendly. And I said, 'My family voted for your and she said thank you. They didn't act like they were too good to talk to us.

She had on bad shoes too." (The shoes were low-heeled, brass-colored pumps decorated with metal studs that formed a polka-dot type pattern on the heel.) The Democratic National Committee paid for Gore to fly to Louisville yesterday to speak at a $250-a-plate standup lunch fundraiser in the lobby of the Kentucky Center for the Arts. Gov. Brereton Jones introduced her as part of "the finest team ever put together in Washington." She told the crowd that healthcare problems are often women's problems and that twice as many women as men suffer from depression. Mental illness, she said, is closely linked to homelessness. Gore also told the 150 people gathered in the lobby about spending the morning visiting the homeless center, which provides food, a place to stay during the day, and medical and dental treatment.

Gore briefly toured the facility, which opened in 1986, and spent about half an hour talking with representatives of local agencies that aid the homeless. She seemed especially '1 interested in local efforts to prevent homelessness by helping troubled families before they reach a crisis. And she said she .4 had heard about the Family Resource Centers being created in Kentucky schools and wanted to know how they were working. jA Then, after most of the television cameras left, she made one more run through the center, this time stopping to talk in a more casual and relaxed way to those using the center's services. Douglas said she thought the visit was the right thing to do.

"I thought it was very polite of them to come see us first before they go to that $250., dinner," she said. Panel's look at engineering pits UK, of 4 Swain said he doubts it's possible to create a top-25 engineering school because it will take the sustained commitment over a decade of two or three governors, the legislature and the UK board of trustees. "I've read a little Kentucky history since I got to this state," Swain said. "One must be skeptical about whether these commitments are ever possible in Kentucky." Upgrading the engineering school should be linked to closing down the UK dental school, Swain said. If it isn't, he said, "what we will have is a very great outflow of money" from other universities into UK's engineering program.

He said it would be better to spend a modest amount of money on improving both universities' engineering schools. Prather said improving the engineering school should be tied to eliminating programs, but not necessarily UK's dental school. "We dont need to approach it that if we do this for UK, then we're going to take something away from UofL," he said. Wethington, who was not present 1 when Swain spoke, said the dental and engineering schools are "sepa-rate issues." "3 The engineering school was' not the only subject of controversy be- tween the two schools. A similar dispute arose on whether to make Jefferson Community which is governed by UK's commu--nity college system, part of UofL." The schools' separate governance has probably "had a chilling effect on their ability to work together at times," said Gary Cox, the executive director of the Council on High- er Education.

Swain said he was not pushing 1 for control of the community lege because he didn't expect to get it. The faculty and staff at Jefferson Community College value being part of UK's system, said former Gov. Edward "Ned" Breathitt, chairman of UK's board of trustees He said that an attempt to take control of the community college from, UK would cause "the biggest fight you ever saw in the legislature nj By MARK SCHAVER Staff Writer FRANKFORT, Ky. First, a dental school. This time, an engineering school.

A commission looking at ways to save money by restructuring higher education got bogged down again yesterday in a dispute between the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. UofL President Donald Swain said that Gov. Brereton Jones' proposal to create a world-class engineering school at UK would drain money from UofL's engineering school and be "a major blow to economic development in Jefferson County." But UK President Charles Weth-ington said later that a top-25 engineering school would benefit all of Kentufcky. The state "truly is at the bottom of the heap-in terms of engi- neers per capita," he said. The commission, created by Jones, is expected to issue its final report Dec.

21. At a previous meeting, Swain and Wethington squabbled about whether to close one of the universities' dental schools. "This commission is dominated by university people, and so it causes some people to have to defend positions that are protecting turf rather than just getting at the meat of the issue," said member Joe Prather, Finance Cabinet secretary. Chairman Jim Miller said some of the universities have been slow to suggest real sacrifices. "Prior to Nov.

1, there was not a single call from a single university president making a constructive suggestion about how we can move this process forward," he said. The Council on Higher Education estimated that $33 million would have to be spent over five years to improve UK's engineering school in the way Jones called for. "I don't see how this is coming to terms with reality or fiscal austerity in the 1990s," Swain said. He also noted that the report said it might take time to develop an engineering school that would rank among the top 25. 4 1 l'MHnmiivt' St, I i Company accused of using layoff to avoid order STAFF PHOTO BY STEWART BOWMAN A SIGN OF THE SEASON: James Foreman strung Christmas lights yesterday around a sign next to U.S.

27 In Garrard County. The Herrlngton Marina opened on Lake Herrlngton In April, and Its restaurant Is open part time during the winter months. Safety-minded miner loses his job a day after forced reinstatement Corrections clarifications mine and that most of the company's 20 or so employees have been laid off. Though the company has repeatedly missed its opportunities to be heard in the court proceedings that led to the reinstatement order, Lackey said he hopes to seek a hearing to explain Sovereign's financial circumstances, "We have lost money for 11 months," Lackey said. "I'm in the! midst of trying to decide whether Wendy and Richard Pinl of the Elf-quest Graphic Novel series 15th anniversary "Fantasy With Teeth." The signing is 3 to 6 p.m.

today at The Great Escape, 2433 Bardstown Road. By JOHN VOSKUHL Staff Writer DWARF, Ky. For one day last' month, it looked like coal miner Danny Shepherd might get his job back. Shepherd, who is described by his lawyer as a "mine-safety activist," won an order last month from a federal judge temporarily reinstating him to a job he'd been suspended from since August after he complained about allegedly unsafe mining practices. Sovereign Mining the Perry County outfit that was the subject of Shepherd's allegations, complied with the Nov.

18 order to reinstate him. The next day, the company laid him off. A legal document filed this week on behalf of federal Labor Secretary Robert Reich accuses the company of using the quick layoff to "circumvent" the reinstatement order of administrative law judge Jerold Feld-man. The company's president, Le-roy Lackey, denied any wrongdoing and said the layoff was a business decision based on poor revenues from the underground mine near Dwarf. But the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration disagrees.

And on Wednesday, the agency cited Sovereign with a $3,000 fine for every day Shepherd is kept off the job. "In our view, they have failed to comply with the judge's order," said Rodney Brown, an MSHA spokesman. Lackey said yesterday that operations have eased at the Dwarf ') Because of an editing error, a recipe for chocolate fudge truffles in Wednesday's Food Features section omitted a word. The first paragraph should read: Combine the chocolate, the butter and cream in a heavy bowl over simmering water. Beat until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth.

Because of a clerk's error, yesterday's Calendar of Events gave the wrong date for the book signing by if this mine can ever be profitable. Federal officials discount Lackey's justification. r- "Presently, while Sovereign Mining is not producing coal, it is in the Because of a reporting error, the year that Michigan State won the NCAA basketball championship was wrong in a story yesterday. The Spartans won in 1979. See MINE Page 10, col.

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