Psyching Out Susan McDougal

Psyching Out Susan McDougal

Thursday, May 8th 1997 — Few of us knew that Susan McDougal, estranged wife of James McDougal, is sitting in a maximum security prison in Los Angeles awaiting trial in a Santa Monica case which has nothing to do with Whitewater. She is charged with embezzling $150,000 from conductor Zubin Mehta -- forging checks and obtaining a credit card in the name of Mehta's wife, Nancy, during a period she worked for the Mehtas.

McDougal's lawyer, Mark Geragos, has convinced Santa Monica judge Paul Flynn to order "Malibu" Ken Starr to appear at this trial to explain why Mrs. McDougal has been held in prison since the week before Christmas while most people accused of embezzlement are granted bail. Geragos is also saying that Starr has reams of documents essential to McDougal's defense which he has not shared as required.

It seems that Starr is also ignoring the judge's order to transfer McDougal from her prison cell, on what Geragos called "murderers row," to a local jail.

What Geragos is claiming is that Starr is purposefully locking down Susan McDougal in the worst possible conditions in order to torture her into cooperating with him in his search for more evidence against Hillary and Bill Clinton regarding the Whitewater matter.

McDougal has been locked in a 9-by-5-foot cell at the Sybil Brand Institute for Women on federal contempt charges for refusing to tell Starr what she knows about Whitewater, so Geragos may be out of luck. I've been to Sybil Brand — as a tutor — and I can tell you it's a nasty place. But if McDougal is there because she won't cough up the information Starr wants, there may be little Geragos can do using the embezzlement-bail argument.

The Sheriff of Los Angeles, who has control over the prison, says McDougal is being kept there for her own safety.

If this sounds like Guatemala to you, you may not be far off.