Columnist Dean Juipe: Lenient judge shows his favoritism

Dean Juipe

Monday, Dec. 8, 2003 | 9:35 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

By all accounts, he played his role with a cartoon-like vigilance that mocked the rules of protocol, decorum and law. Impatient and predisposed, Judge David Sam wasn't about to allow the government to convict or further embarrass a couple of big shots in his home state.

Dismissing the case for a second time in spite of a federal appeals court ordering him to hear it, Sam, on Friday, turned loose a couple of guys who had done their best to bribe everyone and anyone it took to bring the 2002 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City. With an imperceptible nod and a wink, he sent teary-eyed Tom Welch and Dave Johnson home for the holidays, free of concerns that their actions deserved the 75 years in prison the government sought in bringing its bribery charges against them.

Let's see here: Ten members of the International Olympic Committee were forced to resign as a result of accepting gifts from Welch and Johnson; two Salt Lake City Olympic Committee members have pleaded guilty to related tax-fraud charges; and a third SLC committee member faces charges of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

But Welch and Johnson walk away scot-free, simply, it can be argued, because Sam wouldn't have it any other way.

Never mind that Welch and Johnson lavished $1 million in gifts on IOC members and tapped into a humanitarian project fund to do it. That fund -- designed to buy sports equipment for athletes in impoverished countries -- was, the government alleges, purloined of 90 percent of its resources as Welch and Johnson spread trips to Disneyland and Paris and Rolex watches among those who would be voting on Salt Lake City's Olympic bid in 1995.

What they did was flagrant and repulsive and likely merited time in a stockade. Yet Sam, a fellow Ute, forgave them with a conspicuous move of his own, waving his hand at the evidence and justifying the alleged crimes as nothing more than "business as usual" for a city chasing Olympic dreams.

Throughout the abbreviated trial he never wasted a chance to deride the prosecution, chastise its motives and scold its representatives. He had tossed the case out in 2001, and, by God, he was going to do it again.

"Enough is enough," he said, bringing a sudden closure to the case before it reached the jury. The government cannot refile due to double jeopardy limitations.

Sam, 70 and a federal judge for 18 years, may be an otherwise unbiased judicator, but in this case -- and from this distance -- he had a comedic quality to him that can only be gained by fitting a well-worn stereotype. As we have all seen in assorted TV programs and movies, he was the judge with a chip on his shoulder who was going to impose his will on the proceedings no matter the degree of shame it brought him.

He not only didn't have a rope behind the bench to hang Welch and Johnson, he didn't even have a ruler to slap their hands. He may have even told their limo drivers to keep their motors running, because he was about to set them free.

He said he saw no criminal intent, even if Welch and Johnson -- civic leaders who headed Salt Lake City's Olympic bid request -- were immersed in fraudulent, secretive practices.

Dishing out a heaping helping of hometown justice, Sam acted as if he wanted to thank (or knight) Welch and Johnson on their way out. I guess it's safe to say he enjoyed the Olympics.