Cunningham headed to Tucson prison
By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT - Staff Writer | ∞
NORTH COUNTY ---- Imprisoned former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham will soon have a new address ---- a work camp just outside Tucson, Ariz.
The camp is 410 miles from San Diego, a six-hour drive that will allow the former Republican lawmaker's friends and family members to more easily visit him as he serves an eight-year sentence for taking more than $2.4 million in bribes.
Cunningham was at an Oklahoma City transfer facility Thursday after having served the first 10 months of his sentence at a federal prison in Butner, N.C.
As Cunningham was being transferred to Oklahoma after Christmas, federal prosecutors were issuing new subpoenas for documents from three House committees.
Grand jury subpoenas were sent from San Diego to the offices of the House Appropriations, Intelligence and Armed Services committees, according to a notice published in the Congressional Record on Dec. 27.
The U.S. attorney's office in San Diego declined to comment this week, citing policy and federal statutes surrounding grand jury subpoenas.
Federal investigators have been stymied in their efforts to recover thousands of pages of House files, including classified documents relating to secret CIA contracts and a 59-page classified report into Cunningham's activities produced last fall by an investigator working for the House Intelligence Committee.
Calls to the Appropriations Committee were not returned and spokesmen for the Armed Services and Intelligence panels declined comment Thursday. Responses to the subpoenas are reportedly due by Jan. 11.
Cunningham had represented the 50th Congressional District in Southern California with his primary office in Escondido. He was sentenced to a little more than eight years in prison in March after pleading guilty to bribery and tax evasion. He admitted in a U.S. District Court appearance in November 2005 that he had accepted cash, gifts and trips in exchange for steering millions of dollars of defense contracts to two military contractors.
Now identified as federal inmate 94405-198, Cunningham's new address will be the work camp at the Federal Correctional Complex about 10 miles from Tucson off Interstate 10.
Cunningham, 64, will live in a dormitory-style barracks and will work at some type of job at the 128-inmate camp, prison spokesman Scott Sutton said.
Cunningham's Washington-based attorney, K. Lee Blalack, said Thursday that he had recently spoken by telephone with the decorated Vietnam War Navy ace about the move.
"He is obviously pleased that he is closer to where his daughters are located, and hopefully, it will make it easier for them to visit," Blalack said.
At his sentencing, U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns said he hoped that Cunningham would be placed in the privately operated, low-security federal penitentiary in Taft, near Bakersfield.
After 10 months in custody, Cunningham is settling into the routine of life behind bars, Blalack said.
"And he's continuing to try and do what he can to turn his life in a different direction," he said. "All in all, he's making good progress."
Blalack said Cunningham's faith is "an important aid to him when times are tough in incarceration."
The San Diego grand jury has been considering evidence against Brent Wilkes, a Poway businessman who founded the defense firm ADCS and whose lawyers have acknowledged was one of the alleged co-conspirators mentioned in court documents.
Investigators also are conducting a probe of Wilkes' childhood friend, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, a former high-ranking CIA official, for his role in the awarding of a government contract that went to Wilkes. Foggo resigned from the CIA last year shortly after that news was reported.
The fate of two other men tied to Cunningham's bribery in court documents, New York developer Thomas Kontogiannis and his nephew, John T. Michael, also is unresolved.
Another man at the heart of the bribery, Mitchell Wade of the now-defunct firm MZM, pleaded guilty last year to his role in the case and is expected to be sentenced this year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760) 740-5426, or wbennett@nctimes.com.
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Awww... wrote on Jan 4, 2007 10:45 PM:Poor baby.. look in the mirror, just like forest fires, only you, can stop corruption. Don't be tempted in the first place. He got off easy.
Let me get this correct... wrote on Jan 5, 2007 12:58 AM:Here is a man who was elected by the public to represent them in the House of Representatives and then he uses his position to accept bribes to the tune 2.4 million dollars? He breached the trust of the citizens and steals all this money and the report gets shown up as a poor poor pitiful me show? Grow up. This dude should have gotten 25 to life and solitary. Bank robbers get worse than that and usually they steal around a few thousand. Put his greedy self under the jail and do not let ANYONE see this wretched man.
RaisingArizona wrote on Jan 5, 2007 5:20 AM:Cool, Randy Johnson and Randy Cunningham are both coming back home or closer to home to Arizona. One will a few less millions and Duke with less hairs on his head.
Ron wrote on Jan 5, 2007 5:21 AM:Well, Mr. Awww, since you surely must have led a blameless life, we wish for you, also, all the consequences you have earned. If you need a cliche, I suggest "there but for the grace of God go I."
NO PENSION wrote on Jan 5, 2007 5:44 AM:I am hoping that we can stop him from continuing to receive his pension. I don't understand how he "earned" a pension by using his office to extort monies and to use the budget for military purchases to outfit our troops as the capital for his illegal business. He didnt do his job; he jeopardized the safety of our troops and he cost us millions for investigation and prosecution and incarceration.
morty wrote on Jan 5, 2007 1:19 PM:NO BODY mentions favoritetism." I ADMIT I VOTED FOR HIM.
Ron wrote on Jan 5, 2007 1:42 PM:Although you wouldn't catch me accepting bribes.
Grump wrote on Jan 5, 2007 1:45 PM:He doesn't need a the pension from Congress, he already as his Admirals pention$$$$$$.
JR wrote on Jan 5, 2007 10:57 PM:admiral's pension??? duke was never an admiral!
Donna wrote on Jan 6, 2007 7:48 AM:Cunningham was never a "Duke" except in his own eyes. He was a loser and a cheat and a fraud, a man without scruples or morals. The people of North County elected that felon over and over and over again; making his seat the safest in the nation. He not only took bribes, he actively extorted them, and was crass enough to print a menu of bribes e.g. what he would do for what amount, like some cheap whore. Now that North County can't have the disgraced Cunningham, they have elected Bilbray to represent them. I think "representative" may just be an accurate term.
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