The Final Crash of Larry Case
RingAdams, James
THE ANAL CRASH Of LARRY CASE The demise of a wacky Little Rock private eye who used to spy on (and for) Bill Clinton and the Arkansas machine. w hen the Maumelle, Arkansas district court on a...
...March 1997 • The American Spectator As Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton eagerly used a demimonde of private eyes and shady operators for political intelligence and, by some accounts, intimidation...
...Bossie said Case punched him...
...Stodola even received $1,000 from a central figure in the John Huang/ Democratic National Committee fund-raising scandals, former Little Rock restaurateur turned China trading partner Charles Yah Lin Trie...
...A secretary told Patterson that Case had just left, and the uniformed trooper walked to the parking lot to catch him...
...By this time, Case was absorbed with an emotional crisis, apparently triggered when he concluded that he was being followed by a mysterious stranger...
...A FRIMI MI HIGH PLACES The saga begins in the late 1960's, when Case began running errands for various factions in the Little Rock Police Department...
...Accounts differ on what followed...
...Federal Judge Henry Woods dismissed the suit the following May...
...At the beginning of September, the book's publisher offered Case a $1o,000 retainer for files and tapes he said he had stored for safekeeping in Phoenix, Arizona, provided he produced the cache by the end of the week...
...But he held out for the full amount...
...Board in 1971...
...Last June, Willott was visiting Larry Nichols of Conway, Arkansas, a fount of anti-Clinton material, when they discovered that Case had staked out Nichols's house...
...Board...
...Goodwin that he was retiring his license as private investigator because he had just signed a $545,000 contract with a "Major National News Organization...
...The Stephens Overseas Services PAC gave $3,5o0...
...His way of getting close to people," says one former state trooper who followed his career, "is to dig up dirt on them...
...Case's career as a media researcher culminated in a bizarre incident with David Bossie, later a key staffer in the Senate Whitewater investigation, who is widely respected for his command of the documentation...
...In October 1992, Good'Case added that Stodola had also advised him he had a possible cause of action "against certain individuals, as AGENTS or INVESTIGATORS, acting on behalf of the ARKANSAS STATE POLICE ET AL...
...In 1990, Minnesota native Mark Stodola won an uncontested election for the strategic post of Pulaski County prosecuting attorney...
...Stodola's friends helped him with his personal finances, too...
...The state police subsequently misplaced one office copy, and Goodwin wrote Case, "We would appreciate you furnishing this agency a copy of the lost tape to complete our file...
...He give them some information Simpson and them wanted, and he's been working with Simpson's people...
...CASE AM) CLIYMN During Clinton's tense 1990 re-election campaign, this curiosity led his chief of staff, Henry Oliver, to meet with Case in the office of a North Little Rock pawn shop, Arkansas Pawn Furniture and Sporting Goods...
...Around June 11, Case noticed his shadow, and freaked out...
...We have been accused of disreputable muck-raking ourselves, but we should underscore that scandalmongering is infinitely more serious when it is sponsored by the power of the state...
...As with much in Case's strange life, his relations with Clinton and the Clinton camp were so involuted and ambiguous that some of his compatriots seriously thought he was a double agent...
...By 1992, complaints about Case were pouring into the Board...
...To their surprise, the state police administrators of the P.I...
...He evidently spends his life in the sludge of the world and basically our opinion is we don't want to have anything to do with him...
...Case, however, passed it up...
...Case says that Capt...
...Board's voluminous files on Case...
...He even wrote Adams a crisp letter dated July 1, 1992, arguing that the attorney general's subpoena form was invalid...
...TAS readers will remember Corporal Patterson as one of the Governor's detail who went public in 1993 with accounts of Bill Clinton's sexual adventures...
...Harp confirmed his meeting with Case, but Oliver said he couldn't recall it...
...Puzzled that Case's fee was paid by Little Rock city funds, Eddins called Case's nominal employer, a veteran private eye named Sam Tatom...
...Bill Eddins, and assistant director Richard Rail dropped by the office to push it along...
...The drunk driving trial was the first time in more than a decade in which Case was without high-level protection from Clinton appointees and proteges...
...But a picture of his career emerges from boxes full of files, tapes, and transcripts accumulated in the past two decades by the Arkansas Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies, the regulator of the private security industry...
...Goodwin told me;' the trooper recalled, "that the Governor wanted to know what Case knew...
...Stodola had said under no circumstance would he issue a warrant for Larry Case's arrest...
...With this spotty track record, Case never realized the fantastic sums that he asked for his tapes...
...No hallucination, his tail was a freelance researcher named Wayne Willott, who occasionally conThe American Spectator • March 1997 tributed to the talk show of presidential son Michael Reagan...
...He signed a contract with Repaca, Inc., to provide information for the TV news show "A Current Affair" about "Bill Clinton's romantic life, sexual affairs, involvement with drugs and other indiscretions...
...What has he done as U.S...
...More importantly, it emerged that Case's June crisis would never have reached such a dangerous pass if he had not been given a carte blanche by the surviving leader of the local Bill Clinton–Jim Guy Tucker political faction, Pulaski County Prosecutor Mark Stodola...
...Board to complain...
...He was shaking and his voice was breaking," Patterson said...
...In December 1992, Case did indeed file a federal suit against the state police and some 35 other defendants, including President-elect Clinton, alleging that they conspired to libel him and violate his civil rights...
...By this time, however, Case had developed a new and even more bizarre pursuit On June 25, he wrote Col...
...Stodola's friends included Clinton, Tucker, and their business associate James McDougal, owner of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan...
...At investigator Wes Adams's request, an assistant county prosecutor indicted Case for failing to comply...
...On September 29,1991, Case went to the governor's mansion for a 7:30 a.m...
...The most developed complaint, which led Case to surrender his license and pay a $13,500 fine, concerned billing for work the board determined Case hadn't performed...
...Case was peddling a taped interview with a woman who claimed to have flown to Texas with Republican candidate Sheffield Nelson for a drug party with a prominent business partner...
...Along the way he was chosen president of the Pulaski County, Arkansas and national Young Democrats...
...He received his private investigator's license from the state police–administered P.I...
...THE CRASH OF '98 Rumors about Case's tapes, and a million dollar asking price, continued to circulate during the 1996 campaign, but the market for his material went into deep depression...
...Cocaine Use and Other," "Cocaine Purchase," and "Conspiracy * Bribery * Clintons & Others" were available for $49.95 each...
...Case, a hulking man with short-cropped chin whiskers, was in court after nearly running down Arkansas state trooper Larry Patterson in the parking lot of the old state police headquarters last June...
...Whether or not Case acted as a double agent in peddling anti-Clinton material during the presidential campaigns, his trajectory sheds light on a sinister side of Clinton's own career...
...Board discovered that Stodola's friendships included Larry Case...
...Board and Patterson's current assignment, the Motor Vehicle Division...
...As a law student at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Stodola volunteered as scheduling coordinator for the 1974 congressional campaign of law professor Bill Clinton...
...But strange things started to happen...
...In 1980, he began to do odd jobs for State Land Commissioner William J. McCuen...
...We, for one, savor the irony that he owed his career to the protection of Clinton and his political cronies...
...Eddins said he needed the application fee up front, and to his surprise received a check from Little Rock police chief Sonny Simpson...
...Nichols was convinced that Case had been hired to harass him "by the Democratic National Committee and Betsey Wright," although he said he wasn't free to release corroborating evidence...
...Case's sordid career poses questions of national importance...
...We was all discussing girlfriends and drugs and s–t like that," Case said later in a taped conversation with state P. 1. Board investigators, "and then we discussed what they was supposed to be doing for me...
...Even then, however, Case had scrapes with the law, says former municipal judge and Whitewater witness David Hale...
...Brown was collecting material for a book on Bill Clinton that was later published as Slick Willie...
...Tommy Goodwin, the head of the state police...
...Doug Harp, a former director of the state police and Clinton appointee to the P.I...
...According to the contract, Case agreed to attempt to deliver "a copy of a certain apology letter (Apology letter') from Bill Clinton to a debutante who allegedly was involved with Mr...
...Goodwin and Goodwin's people...
...ENTER MARK STOMA Yet Case still had protection, this time from a new player on the Clinton-Tucker axis...
...The charges against the buttoned-down Nelson were so implausible that they never entered the campaign, and Clinton's spokesmen were later at a loss to explain the meeting...
...They netted at least $132,000...
...State police investigator Wes Adams had opened five files on the free-wheeler, who continued his visits to state police director Goodwin...
...which I will be having my attorney look at...
...Later elected secretary of state, McCuen is now serving a 17-year state prison sentence for political corruption...
...At the same time, there were rumors that Case was taking money from the Democratic National Committee...
...But his target now was Bill Clinton, who just the year before had listened eagerly to Case's tales about Arkansas Republicans...
...Case achieved notoriety in both the '92 and '96 presidential campaigns by peddling videotapes he claimed showed Clinton womanizing and using drugs...
...I didn't think Larry would clear leather before Case got him," said one witness, but Case screeched to a halt about five inches from Patterson's leg...
...Raymond "Buddy" Young, head of the governor's state police escort, made an appearance and then left...
...Case thought he'd been promised a high-level post at the Alcoholic Beverage Control office...
...Instead, Pledger arranged a job interview for a Highway Department road crew...
...According to the local press, associate independent counsel W. Hickman Ewing had met with Stodola just the day before to ask him to leave Hale alone...
...win acknowledged giving Case copies that March of three videos of Roger Clinton, which he said had previously been released to a member of the news media...
...I'll give you $1,000 if you get on the airplane," Case later recounted...
...Patterson declined and called Stodola's office...
...Goodwin's office...
...What you do with Larry, a lot of times you meet with him to get him out of your hair," said Michael Gauldin, Clinton's press aide, when the story reached the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in October 1992...
...An assistant denied that Case worked for them and agreed to issue a warrant for criminal impersonation...
...The crisis phase began around 8:oo a.m...
...40 for Congress last year and relinquished his post as the chief state prosecutor for Little Rock this January...
...I couldn't never read it," replied Case, "I could never read whether he was wanting me to get Clinton or leave him alone...
...As governor, Clinton eagerly used a demi-monde of private eyes and shady operators for political intelligence and, by some accounts, intimidation...
...In a family dispute at the home of his 8o-year-old mother, where Case now lives, he pulled a shotgun on his brother Donald...
...w hen the Maumelle, Arkansas district court on a recent Thursday evening found former private eye Larry Case guilty of drunken driving and resisting arrest, it wrote another bizarre footnote to Bill Clinton's political career...
...In spite of strong support from Bill Clinton's fund-raisers, Stodola lost a race JAMES RING ADAMS is an investigative writer for TAS...
...The Tyson Foods PAC and senior executives, including presidential friend James B. Blair, donated at least $3,000...
...Case had even higher connections...
...According to Patterson's report, Case threw down an I.D...
...Right after his disciplinary hearing that September, Case called Eddins and Adams of the P. I. Board to meet him confidentially at a Shoney's Restaurant on the other side of town...
...Case was reduced to sending out flyers labeled "The Untold Truth," offering his "Documented—Certifiable" videos by mail order...
...State police director Tommy L. Goodwin handed the application personally to the board administrator, Sgt...
...Board hearing that September that revoked his license and fined him $13,500...
...Clinton's critics denounced the episode, and particularly the !, state police involvement, when it came to light in 1992...
...A formerArkansas state trooper said that Case made frequent visits to Col...
...He also left a threatening message on the answering machine at Floyd Brown's Citizens United group, which staffers promptly forwarded to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr...
...At the time Bossie worked for Floyd Brown's Presidential Victory Committee, notorious among the "mainstream" for the Willie Horton television ads that helped defeat Michael Dukakis in 1988...
...Conspiracy Meeting Taped," went the blurb...
...Floyd Brown, David Bossie, Debbie Stone and [Wall Street Journal editorial writer] John Fund...
...Stodola showed his capacity for mischief last December when, in almost his last official act, he indicted Whitewater witness David Hale on separate state charges...
...Case...
...I'm doing this strictly for Goodwin and Simpson," Tatom replied, according to a transcript in the P.I...
...Although startling, the switch was no surprise to some who knew Case...
...Case didn't slow down, and Patterson reached for his revolver...
...on Friday, June 14, when Case accosted Corporal Larry Patterson at breakfast at Andy's Restaurant, near the state police building that houses the P.I...
...In 1984, Case used his political muscle to reapply for his private investigator's license...
...CASE AM) THE BIG TIME With the presidential campaign, Case had discovered a national market for his specialty, spinning dirt into sludge...
...meeting with Clinton himself...
...But Case refused to comply with a subpoena, issued for the board by the state attorney general, and the issue turned into a huge run-around with Stodola's office...
...But Case didn't lose his political touch...
...Case faced stiff resistance from the state police officers who administered the daily affairs of the P.I...
...She said, 'Get on the airplane...
...Clinton allegedly had sexual relations (Prostitute...
...Bossie, the publisher's representative Deborah Stone and Case were about to board a flight to Phoenix when Case suddenly demanded his $io,000...
...The court had already 42 scheduled the trial when word came down that Stodola had ordered the case dropped...
...At the end of 1992 he declared himself indigent and asked the federal court to accept his suit against the state police in forma pauperis...
...Case said he pushed Bossie out of the way to reclaim his bags...
...After trying to exploit Case and finding him wanting, the mainstream press may deplore the way he tried to peddle dirt to Clinton's "extreme right-wing" opponents...
...The trooper said that he asked GoodThe American Spectator • March 1997 win why he allowed Case such access...
...He wanted to tell them about his contacts with Goodwin...
...I'd admit, you know, they cut a deal with me...
...Case declined to be interviewed for this article without clearance from his lawyer...
...That incident capped a week in which Case, who packs 235 pounds on a 6'1" frame, seemed close to running amok...
...It turned out that Case was indeed being followed, an odd tale of which more later...
...When Stodola ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1996, he collected contributions from some of President Clinton's now famous benefactors...
...While Case followed Nichols, Willott began to tail Case...
...president...
...His highest-priced item was an "audio exclusive" recording of his 1992 negotiations with Clinton's opponents...
...I've been catching so much flak around here," he said, "I'm not going to cause any more trouble...
...Case found potential clients in the Los Angeles Times, NBC News, and an unspecified national tabloid...
...Whether he would misuse the tremendous resources of the presidency for the same purpose remains an urgent question...
...Pulaski County real estate records contain a mortgage on three Little Rock lots for Stodola, his wife, and another couple, made by Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan...
...Exasperated, Adams asked to be relieved of the case and wrote to the assistant attorney general, 'Wade, I am getting tired of the `pussy footing' by the Prosecuting Attorney's Office in reference to Mr...
...If he's going to do any following," gloated Larry Nichols, "he's got to do it from a bicycle...
...Case worked as a lone private eye for most of the 1970's, occasionally signing on as investigator for several local police departments...
...Hale doesn't remember the charges, but he does clearly recall that they were quashed on the orders of the head prosecutor, a rising politician and later governor named Jim Guy Tucker...
...Case was in the car, just rounding the circular driveway in the visitor's lot when Patterson raised his left hand to stop him...
...And even though Clinton's staff saw Case as a sludge-dweller, they were still willing to give him personal access to the governor...
...His driver's license was suspended for 270 days...
...Case continued working with Col...
...43...
...Now servMarch 1997 • The American Spectator ing a federal prison term for a Whitewater-related business fraud, Hale was an assistant city prosecutor in 1972-73 when his office considered indicting Case...
...Case was fined a total of $1,175 for drunken driving, resisting arrest, and refusing to take a breathalyzer test...
...It smacks of Orwell's book 1984 when Big Brother watched everything...
...An American Spectator investigation reveals that Case had frequent access to then–Governor Clinton's head of the state police, in spite of his own dubious reputation...
...Case has a reputation for sleaziness, and you don't know what he is likely to do...
...Board with another complaint about his mysterious follower...
...State police director Goodwin was there along with Jim Pledger, then the acting chief of staff...
...Case apparently never produced the Debutante, the Prostitute, or the Apology Letter, missing out on the $45,00o the contract offered for on-air interviews, but he later said he received $4,000 for his information...
...It scares 41 me and it should scare people around the country," said Sheffield Nelson...
...495.00 ea...
...Case's stock in trade were videos purporting to show Roger and Bill Clinton using drugs...
...Around noon the next Monday, Case returned to the P.I...
...And this material came from a surprising source, Col...
...Washington D.C...
...Board, to review Case's material...
...The loan of $169,000, dated January 29, 1986, allowed Stodola and his partners to retire another mortgage on the property in February 1986...
...At least once, however, he claimed to be a Pulaski County deputy sheriff when he wasn't, and he was convicted in municipal court for criminal impersonation...
...The investigators asked repeatedly why Goodwin would feed him material damaging to Governor Clinton...
...In addition to his impersonation conviction, the board cited "a condition of habitual drunkenness," as shown by "two violent brawls, while intoxicated, in the same public place within a year...
...He apparently had in mind the P.I...
...Stone urged him to board the flight...
...Patterson booked Case for drunken driving, and his saga ended January 23 in night court in suburban Maumelle...
...Later he wound up with the job of Little Rock city attorney, in part through the patronage of Jim Guy Tucker...
...His sludge-dredging talents found a ready audience among a circle of politicians who found it in their interest to protect him from the normal course of the law...
...In this position he could decline to bring cases against political friends and he could make trouble for enemies...
...The Unwanted Republicans...
...Several accounts, including Case's own, agree that he once met personally with Clinton in the governor's mansion to pass on tapes claiming to show a Republican opponent using drugs with a mistress...
...Yet the Democrat-Gazette reported that Oliver asked Col...
...Clinton (Debutante') and to assist Repaca in locating the Debutante and a prostitute which with [sic] Mr...
...Former Little Rock Police Chief Walter (Sonny) Simpson later wrote a recommendation for Case, calling his moral character "comparable to acceptable community standards...
...card signed by Mark Stodola and said he wanted to take Patterson to the Prosecuting Attorney's office for an interview...
...An hour later she called back to say "that Mr...
...He began to visit the state police headquarters of the P.I...
...In 1979, after several hearings, the Arkansas Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies, the regulator of the private security industry, denied his license renewal...
...Stodola gave several different reasons...
...The colonel would close his door, and he never closed his door...
...After accusing prominent Republicans across the country of having him tailed, he threatened his brother with a shotgun (prompting a still pending criminal charge) and only by a stroke of luck escaped getting shot himself...
...In fact he did have access to state police surveillance videos and audiotapes from the 1984 drug case against Roger Clinton, although no one could ever identify Bill on them...
Vol. 30 • March 1997 • No. 3
