By JIM STRADER; Associated Press Writer
Friday, December 15, 1995     Page: 1A

HARRISBURG — Former Attorney General Ernie Preate Jr., sentenced to 14
months in prison for a campaign-related crime, showed two sides of himself
Thursday, telling a judge of “unrelenting” pain for his actions and later
boasting that he could serve his sentence “standing on my head.”
   
Preate, a hard-driving career prosecutor who pleaded guilty to a single
count of mail fraud, also was fined $25,000 and given two years’ probation. He
was barred from seeking office while on probation and ordered to perform 300
hours of community service after release.
    U.S. District Judge Sylvia Rambo ordered Preate, 55, to begin serving his
sentence Jan. 15 at a prison to be selected. Preate’s lawyers and the
prosecution said Preate is likely to serve his entire sentence, with the
possibility of about a month off for good behavior.
   
“I’m a strong guy. I’m not afraid to do time,” said Preate, who plans an
appeal. “I can do federal prison standing on my head.”
   
Preate, who ran for governor last year, resigned in June after pleading
guilty, ending a five-year federal investigation. He admitted mailing false
campaign finance reports to conceal illegal cash contributions of about
$20,000 from video poker operators. Prosecutors said Preate promised those
contributors he would relax the enforcement of gambling laws.
   
Preate’s lawyers asked Rambo for probation, portraying Preate as a man who
sacrificed his career to comfort his dying father and to save his brothers
from indictment. Attorney Herbert Stern suggested that Preate undertake public
service, helping indigent death-row defendants obtain lawyers.
   
Stern characterized the crime as relatively minor and said Preate has
suffered and “been destroyed in many ways” by the situation. “Preate has
already paid a staggering price for his offense,” Stern said.
   
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Behe rejected Stern’s arguments, calling
mail fraud a serious offense and saying Preate has only himself to blame.
   
“His wounds are self-inflicted,” Behe said.
   
Behe said Preate decided to plead guilty to mail fraud only after being
told he could face charges of racketeering, conspiracy and obstruction of
justice. Preate’s brothers, Carlon and Robert, also faced charges of lying to
the grand jury that investigated Preate, Behe said.
   
Behe said Preate has spent his time since June orchestrating a campaign to
shape public opinion about him. Behe said Preate has said he could have beaten
the charge against him, painted himself as the fall guy for others in his
campaign, described the investigation as a witch-hunt and political
prosecution, and organized a letter-writing effort to the judge.
   
The letters were glowing endorsements of Preate as a good man who made a
small mistake, Behe said.
   
“I do not say that these people were not well-intentioned,” Behe said of
the letter-writers. “But they have been fooled.”
   
Also hurt by Preate were the people who supported him as he continued to
deny wrongdoing, Behe said.
   
“He betrayed the trust of those people,” the prosecutor said. “He abandoned
the people who stood with him.”
   
Preate, who addressed Rambo briefly, spent most of the 90-minute sentencing
hearing seated with his eyes downcast. At times, he became emotional, dabbing
at his nose and eyes with a handkerchief.
   
His daughters, Alexandra and Elizabeth, wept throughout the hearing, seated
next to Preate’s fiancee, Susan Baxter.
   
“This is the most painful day of my life,” Preate told the judge. “I accept
responsibility … for what I have done. I accept it now and for the rest of
my life.”
   
Preate told Rambo he was sorry and apologized to his family and to the
people of Pennsylvania for his crime.
   
“I will take this personal pain with me all the days of my life. It is
unrelenting,” he said. “There is no respite, even in the dark of night.”
   
Ernie Preate Jr.
   
To begin sentence Jan. 15