Family Plan

Convicted of fathering a crime

Together the two powerful Oklahoma Democrats were found guilty of 20 counts of conspiracy and mail fraud, but by the time the nine-day trial in Muskogee County had ended, no one in the Sooner State could have been in any doubt about the motive: the crime had been committed for Dad.

U.S. Attorney Gary Richardson persuaded the federal court jury that State House Speaker Dan Draper and his chief legislative lieutenant, Majority Floor Leader Joseph Fitzgibbon, had participated in a complicated vote-fraud scheme to steal a 1982 runoff election. The beneficiary: the speaker's father, Daniel D. Draper II, 72. But despite the help of at least 58 questionable absentee ballots, the elder Draper lost the race for the state house seat anyhow. And until last week, his son, one of only four politicians in the state's history to be elected speaker for three terms, was a very good bet for higher office. Now, like Fitzgibbon, the younger Draper faces a maximum of five years in prison. Maintains Draper: "I've done nothing wrong." At week's end Governor George Nigh announced that both leaders were automatically suspended from their offices. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.