AFFLICTING THE COMFORTABLE: JOURNALISM AND POLITICS IN WEST VIRGINIA

21. The Strength of Their Convictions

Chapter 21 THE STRENGTH OF THEIR CONVICTIONS WHEN WALLY BARRON became West Virginia's twenty-sixth governor, he informed the voters in his inaugural address, "My coworkers and I are possessed with boundless confidence that our goals will be reached and surpassed." Surpassed they were, but probably not in the fashion he had envisioned. Barron became the first chief executive in the state's history to go to prison, and his merry little band of freebooters went with him. As an IRS agent commented at the time of the convictions, 'Tve seen all of this before, but never all of it in one place." The trial of Barron and his friends took place just six months after they were indicted, but not without a spate of creative delaying tactics. Attorneys for the defense filed for transfer of the trial to another state on the grounds that a "poisonous ... pervasive ... saturation of publicity" had destroyed the defendants' chances for an impartial hearing. The transfer was denied, and the trial was scheduled in Charleston. Then, as the date of the trial drew near, an epidemic ofhealth problems beset the ranks ofthe accused. Barron's lawyer, the ever-dramatic Robert G. Perry, actually collapsed in the courtroom, causing a one-week delay. Just before the trial was to begin on August 12, 1968, word reached Charleston that Brown was in an Elkins hospital suffering from what his physician described as hypertension. The presiding judge in the case, Robert J. Martin, of Greenville, South Carolina, called for a second opinion and, after reading the report from two doctors assigned this task, refused another postponement. Finally, after the trial had begun, Gore's lawyer developed shingles, and Gore won a marginal edge when he was allowed to step aside until a later date. 216 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE The fifteen-day trial opened with a parade of witnesses who testified to the involvement of seventeen different companies with the Ohio-Florida corporate empire and to payoffs totaling more than $166,500. But the most damning pieces of evidence produced by federal investigators were documents signed by the defendants agreeing to evenly apportion the proceeds from the bribery conspiracy among themselves. The prosecution opened its case by presenting two trust agreements signed by the six defendants pledging to "share equally in all the profits." Agents for the federal government testified that these agreements had been discovered in Schroath's safety deposit box more than four years previously. But according to the government's attorney, this hybrid corporate creation was "nothing but post office boxes." Other witnesses testified that in their attempts to develop state business, or a larger share of the business they already had, they contacted one or more of the defendants and indicated their willingness to pay a portion of any monies they received into one or more of these dummy corporations. The deals were beneficial to the witnesses or their companies, they added, and fell within what they assumed to be the framework of established bidding procedures. The typical sequence of events that occurred after such arrangements were made was detailed in testimony from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Georgia sales representatives, largely suppliers of paint and crushed stone to the State Road Commission. These witnesses admitted that they had paid anywhere from $1,500 to twenty-nine thousand dollars into the Florida or Ohio corporations for contracts they received from the State Division of Purchases. In every instance, these witnesses maintained that there was nothing wrong with what they had been doing, that they were merely paying "commissions" on sales. Each denied knowledge of any bid rigging and said the payments were made solely for bidding information and "help in getting contracts." One of these witnesses- M. C. Paterno, of Charleston's Park Tire Company - told the jury that he would have been compelled to hire salesmen if he hadn't entered into an agreement with Schroath, and added that he reported the payments as a business expense on his income tax returns. The contract Paterno had signed with Schroath noted that he was paying for "manifold THE STRENGTH OF THEIR CONVICTIONS 217 services of experienced consultants." Under further questioning, Paterno testified that the only person he had dealt with was Schroath. Robert L. McClintic, of Frazee Lumber Company, said that his firm sold 3,500 acres of Wetzel County land to the Department of Natural Resources for the Lewis Wetzel Public...