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Traficant may forgo CCA house, friend says
TweetBy Ed Runyan
It’s possible that the former congressman won’t be leaving the federal prison system until September.
YOUNGS-TOWN — A friend of James A. Traficant’s says it’s possible that the former congressman, who’s in federal prison, will not be coming to Youngstown in March to serve three months at a halfway facility run by Community Corrections Association.
Sybille Oelschlager of Schuyler Falls, N.Y., who talks to Traficant by telephone for up to 15 minutes “every weekend,” said Traficant has told her he doesn’t want to go to CCA.
“He requested a different place, and it wasn’t allowed,” she said. She doesn’t know what other facility he requested or why it was not approved and doesn’t know whether there is a chance that he will be granted the opportunity to go somewhere else, she said.
Oelschlager said there are many halfway houses in the area where she lives in upstate New York near Lake Placid and wonders why there isn’t another facility in the Youngstown area where Traficant can serve the three months.
On a radio show on 1330 TALK-WGFT featuring Vindicator columnist Bertram de Souza and Dr. William Binning on Saturday, Oelschlager said she thinks Traficant will not be coming home in March.
She told de Souza and Binning that Traficant wants to complete his time behind bars, meaning he would remain in federal detention until his current release date of Sept. 2, 2009.
In April 2002, a jury in Cleveland found the nine-term Democratic congressman guilty of all 10 counts he faced — including racketeering, bribery, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.
The jury, after a 10-week trial, believed that he took kickbacks from high-level staffers, used other staffers as farmhands on federal time, accepted cash gifts and services from businessmen, cheated on his taxes and tried to influence witnesses.
Oelschlager, who shares Traficant’s interest in painting, said Traficant calls her from the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn., where he is incarcerated, just about every weekend.
Traficant, 67, of Poland, is allowed to talk for up to 15 minutes at a time, she said. He is still painting, she said, and apparently playing guitar and singing.
“Apparently, he has a pretty good voice,” she said. When asked if she had ever heard him sing, she said, “Actually, he told me [he has a good voice].”
She has previously said she met Traficant in a chance meeting with him in Washington, D.C., in 1980, and they had kept in touch.
In explaining her relationship with him, she said, “I’m interested in helping. The Bible says love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Traficant was once incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution at Ray Brook, N.Y., about 30 minutes from Oelschlager’s home. She never visited Traficant in prison, however, she said.
In March, Traficant will have served six years and seven months of his eight-year sentence.
At one time, Oelschlager tried to help Traficant sell some of his paintings on the Internet.
runyan@vindy.com
Comments
It sounds like Jim doesn't like the terms they would impose on him at CCA. He must have gotten negative news on the atmosphere of the place. Perhaps The Vindy should do an investigative article on CCA.
Or maybe he doesn't want to come home and have his former constituents see him having to kowtow to the rules.
I think the Vindy should look further into who this Oelschlager woman is. They should also look into why Trafficant was bounced from prison to prison. Was he a bad boy? Did he, as the pundits have observed, lose his mind?
Personally, I think Trafficant should have to serve all 8 years of his 8 year sentence. He was sentenced to 8 - if 7 was the appropriate number of years, he'd have been sentenced to 7.
QUESTION: Why did the Vindicator release a national news story stating as a fact that Traficant was coming to the CCA half-way house on March 9?
THE DATA: CCA CEO Richard Billak told reporter Meade that there had been an inquiry about the possibility of Traficant's return ... apparently the Vindicator jumped to the conclusion that it was a done deal, without ascertaining whether Traficant would accept such an offer for supervised early-release.
"JUST SAY NO!" There are several obvious reasons why Traficant might refuse voluntary half-way house release:
1) The Vindicator cannot control itself from taking obnoxious cheapshots at Traficant. E.g., yesterday Atty David Betras called him a "crazy man" and Bertram de Souza suggested that Traficant was "channeling Elvis." http://www.vindy.com/weblogs/stirfry/...
This would only get worse if Traficant were in the Youngstown half-way house.
2) Half-way house CEO Richard Billak made what Traficant considered material misrepresentations during the 2002 trial: http://ethics.house.gov/Investigation...
3) Traficant is today in a secured Mayo-Clinic area medical facility capable of monitoring his heart -- where a false drug/alcohol test result is an impossibility.
At Richard Billak's Youngstown CCA facility, the there would be the possibility of tampering with such a test result, which would create a nationwide scandal and send the Congressman back to prison.
Why would Traficant expose himself to that possibility?
In re: Attorney David Betras, who yesterday called Traficant a "crazy man." http://www.vindy.com/weblogs/stirfry/...
I recall Betras publicly endorsing the testimony of Attorney Allen Sinclair, who claimed that he kicked back $2500 cash of his $3150 monthly take-home salary to Traficant.
If Sinclair worked half-time for Traficant, his rate for legal work was only $8 per hour.
Youngstown attorneys sure do work cheap!
But Sinclair apparently had additional bank accounts -- uncovered by Secret Service Agent Mike Robertson -- where that $2500 cash might REALLY have gone.
DOJ never investigated those accounts, just as DOJ never investigated Detore's solid evidence of Cafaro Company tax fraud.
The "Swift Boat"-caliber book about Traficant/Cafaro is waiting to be written.
(You'll recall that John Kerry never accepted the Swift Boat Vets' invitation to sue them for slander, which would have allowed legal 'discovery' of his military records.)
While Traficant appeals have been rejected, there is no statute of limitations on any perjury in the Traficant case, because it constitutes a "fraud upon the court."
Even if Youngstown has to wait until Sep 2009 for Traficant to return, there will be plenty to talk about for a long time to come ... and it's neither "crazy" nor is it "channeling Elvis" ... it's about Cafaro/Sinclair/Lange perjury and criminal prosecutorial misconduct within the DOJ.
NoBS - Where do you get your info about Jimbo? How many days, did you attend JT's trial? Did you ever read the transcripts form the trial? IF, your only source of info is the fish wrap, called the Vindicator, you may want to change your username to AllBS. ps read some, no ALL of Eliot Ness's comments; STAY INFORMED!!!!!