Oklahoma!

Where the graft comes sweepin' down the plain

Humorist Will Rogers, Oklahoma's favorite son, once joshed a former U.S. Treasury Secretary: "Mac, knowing you was manager of Uncle Sam's Treasury so long, I thought you'd be well heeled." Rogers' homespun irreverence about official greed may be timeless, but Oklahomans today are not laughing. A three-year federal investigation of the state's elected officials has found that graft is routine and nearly ubiquitous in Oklahoma county government, and has added as much as $10 million a year to the state's road-maintenance costs. Only one county commissioner and one businessman have finished their trials so far (both were convicted) and another pleaded nolo contendere. But prosecutors say they have evidence against more than 250 people --104 of whom have agreed to plead guilty --and that nearly all of the state's 77 counties are represented. Fifty-one of the 231 current county commissioners have resigned, and perhaps 100 more face charges. The probe has spread to Texas, where six officials have already admitted guilt and a seventh was convicted. Says Assistant U.S. Attorney William Price: "It certainly is the largest investigation of public corruption in terms of sheer numbers in the nation's history."

The frauds involved county purchases of construction equipment and materials by the commissioners. Some payoffs were straightforward "commissions" of 10%. Others were bills, either outrageously padded or for nonexistent equipment. One 28-year-old rock-crushing machine worth $5,000, for instance, was bought for $42,500, and a $14,000 used road grader was leased for one year for $27,500.

The FBI and the IRS cracked the case by first amassing evidence against bribe-paying contractors. Two of the contractors--Lumber Mill Owner Dorothy Griffin and Building Materials Salesman Guy Moore--were persuaded to help investigators catch fellow suppliers and the recipients of their largesse. Scores of transactions--conducted in pickup trucks and county maintenance barns--were tape-recorded. Moore claims that in 28 years of business, he arranged, on the average, more than one bribe every working day.

Cecil Parker, a former commissioner who will plead guilty, speaks of the corruption with a candor bordering on nonchalance. "This thing's been happening since they made county commissioners," says Parker, who at 76 is two years older than the state of Oklahoma. "Sure I took kickbacks. I never asked a man for it. They always gave it to me." Says Betty Eisenhour, who as clerk of Canadian County was an unwitting intermediary for the graft: "I always wondered why I was paying middlemen. Now I know. The commissioners were good old boys, but just between you and me, they were thieves."

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