Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2003 | 8:20 a.m.
LAST WEEK, after five years of pain and embarrassment, U.S. District Judge David Sam rendered justice in his Salt Lake City court. The officials and residents of Salt Lake City, who were being tried for 15 felony charges ranging from bribery to mail fraud and wire fraud, walked from the courtroom free men. They had been battered, beaten and lost fortunes for these crimes when in reality they were the victims. They were the victims of the long-tolerated culture of the International Olympic Committee, which demanded special treatment and gifts if a city or country was even to be considered as a competition site.
It was 17 years ago that Tom Welch became volunteer chairman for the Salt Lake Olympic Bid Committee and 14 years since Dave Johnson became the committee's vice president. They were tireless in their efforts to bring the Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City. In 1991 Nagano, Japan beat them out of the opportunity to host the games in 1998.
As I pointed out in a column four years ago, the Salt Lake City people learned how not to win the IOC approval for games. Andrew Jennings in his book "The New Lords of the Rings," written in 1996, recalls the bidding that gave the Winter Games to Nagano. After IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch had tasted the goodies of Japan in 1990, Jennings writes: "The following year the Olympic committee members made their earnest inspection visits. They stayed in Tsutsumi hotels and were welcomed in Nagano by thousands of locals mobilized by schools and employers, and were accompanied by 'hostesses' throughout their trips. The Olympians relaxed in hot springs, were entertained by geishas, and according to Japanese reporters, were given valuable paintings worth many millions of yen. This is one of Japan's traditional routes for laundering money from business to poli ticians."
Yes, Nagano won the 1998 Winter Games and strangely all the records of their efforts disappeared when investigators showed up in 1999. Not all of the records of expenditures disappeared when Berlin failed to get the 2000 Summer Olympics. The Berlin committee spent $1.5 million on lodging, travel and other goodies for 56 IOC visitors and still were outbid by Sydney, Australia. However, investigators found that most of Berlin's records had also disappeared.
Unlike Berlin and Nagano, the Salt Lake City people did keep records, which our own government attempted to use against them in court. In 1989 a legislative audit of expenditures resulted in the state attorney general eyeing it and the material was made public and openly discussed. No legal action was taken. The SLOC committee was just learning how to meet the demands of the IOC and they eventually won the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. They had played the IOC game and gave everything to win the games.
A firestorm resulted as the public learned about the way the IOC operated. In the summer of 2000 the federal prosecutors determined that Welch and Johnson would be the fall guys in Salt Lake City.
After hearing the prosecution's case, Judge Sam dismissed the charges and said, "I want to turn to Mr. Welch and Mr. Johnson and say to you and to your families, your loved ones, how I regret that you were deprived because of the pending charges under a 15-count felony indictment, of fully enjoying the fruits of your tireless efforts to bring the Olympics to our great state and to join in the celebration of the games and all that went on during that time. I can only imagine the heartache, the disappointment, the sorrow that you and your loved ones suffered through this terrible ordeal. My hope is that you will now be appropriately recognized and honored for your efforts. May this be the beginning of many happy holiday seasons and years without the burden that you have so courageously carried. May God bless you, your family and your loved ones. Thank you ve ry much. The court will recess."
The following two paragraphs in the Salt Lake Tribune about summed up what had taken place: "David Jordan, a former U.S. Attorney for Utah and a member of the SLOC Ethics Panel that in February of 1999 laid blame for the scandal on Welch and Johnson, said that Friday's ruling was a proper outcome. The ethics panel also found that no federal or state laws were broken, he noted.
" 'I always believed this prosecution was an ill-considered effort to turn what was essentially an ethical issue into a criminal issue. Because someone may have crossed a line on ethical standards doesn't make him a criminal,' said Jordan, rejecting a notion that the SLOC report was a roadmap for the government. 'These are experienced prosecutors. They have to have judgment to draw distinctions between ethics and criminal law and they failed to do it.' "
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