Two LV men among those pardoned

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Ken Hartung of Las Vegas is looking forward to restored citizenship privileges, including voting, and perhaps even going to law school.

Such are the dreams of a man who has been pardoned by the president of the United States.

Hartung, a successful insurance agency and securities investor with Prudential Insurance Co., and longtime Las Vegas jeweler Jack Weinstein were among 62 people pardoned Friday by President Clinton.

"It was a really tough road to hoe," Hartung said, noting that the stress of the conviction and its pitfalls also contributed to the failure of his marriage of 27 years. He currently is going through a divorce.

Hartung, 48, pleaded guilty to intercepting a telephone call after a DEA probe resulted in his arrest and the arrest of his supervisor and a state narcotics agent in 1986.

Weinstein, 73, owner of the Tower of Jewels, was convicted in 1975 of interstate transportation of more than $12,000 worth of stolen jewels. Weinstein was charged with having more than 115 pieces of jewelry, including diamonds, antique watches, gold pins and brooches that the FBI said matched items taken in a Kansas City, Mo., robbery.

Weinstein denied knowing that the jewelry was stolen and appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but the guilty verdict was upheld.

For Hartung, it was his third attempt to win a presidential pardon, and he was relieved to get the call with the good news on Friday.

"I felt very good about it," Hartung said today. "I applied right after the conviction and was told I had to wait six years. Then I watched Pointdexter and others get pardons without any wait at all."

John Pointdexter received a pardon after his role in the Iran-Contra scandal of the Reagan-Bush administration.

"They told me there was no need to apply," said Hartung, who became an insurance agent and securities investor 14 years ago and applied for clemency three years ago.

Then a week ago a pardons attorney called and asked if he wanted to be reconsidered. "I learned about it (pardon) around noon on Friday, when they called and informed me President Clinton had signed the pardon on hour ago."

Hartung admitted he used bad judgment by intercepting the call. He was sentenced to three years probation and fined $50.

Hartung also said a year ago he wanted to call Clinton and tell him that mistakes can be overcome -- referring to Clinton's own past problems with the Whitewater land deal probe and Monica Lewinsky scandals.

"I don't know him," Hartung said. "There were a lot of things I liked about the man. I wanted to call him and give him my personal support (during the scandals), but I didn't. It wouldn't look good."

While Hartung said he intends to attend law school, he has not yet decided which law school he would like to attend.

Jack Weinstein could not be reached for comment because he was with a customer, a Tower of Jewels spokeswoman said today.

The narcotics case that Hartung had been working on was dropped because of the use of illegal wiretaps.

Others who received Christmas clemency from the president included Former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., one-time chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Rostenkowski pleaded guilty to two counts of misusing public funds in 1996 and served time in a minimum-security prison in Wisconsin. He was released from a halfway house in October 1997 after 451 days in federal custody.

He was not even eligible to request a pardon through the Justice Department, which requires that a person wait at least five years after completing a sentence before filing a pardon application. However, Justice Department spokeswoman Chris Watney said the Constitution gives the president broad authority to grant pardons.

"I'm greatly appreciative," Rostenkowski, 72, told reporters outside his Chicago home Friday.

Asked what he's going to do now, he replied: "I'm going on with my life and continue to teach and continue to write op-ed pieces for the press, to advise and counsel people that need counseling with respect to government."most prominent of 59 men and women pardoned Friday

Also among those pardoned were Archie Schaffer III, a chicken company executive convicted as a result of the investigation of former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy.

Schaffer, an executive of Tyson Foods Inc., in Springdale, Ark., was convicted in June 1998 of illegally trying to influence Espy,then the agriculture secretary, by inviting him to a May 1993 Tyson party in Russellville, Ark. He was convicted of violating a 93-year-old law that prohibits bribing meat inspectors.

Sun reporters Ed Koch, Marry Manning and Jace Radke contributed to this report.

archive