Embattled Portland, Oregon Mayor Sam Adams who has now become a national joke on the late night TV talk shows such as Jay Leno, has now hired Tonya Harding's former attorney, Robert Weaver. Back when the troubled figure skater was caught up in the Nancy Kerrigan knee-whacking incident as a co-conspirator for hindering investigation of the main defendants in the case, Harding needed expert legal representation to avoid potential jail or prison time, and former federal prosecutor Robert Weaver was an excellent choice who helped to arrange a pretty good plea offer with Harding and the prosecution in the case involving 500 hours of community service, three years probation and a $160,000 fine.
Weaver has also been a legal representative for a number of NBA players who were arrested sometimes on very serious charges. A few years ago, just the legal problems of the Portland Trailblazers seemed like more than enough for full time employment of lawyer for all the criminal charges they faced. One of the worst examples was a Trailblazers roadtrip to Salt Lake City to play the Utah Jazz that resulted in four players having sex with under-aged girls from a shopping mall invited to their hotel rooms.
Mayor Sam Adams hiring such a top lawyer is probably a pretty good sign that he might now consider himself in some serious enough of potential legal trouble to hire such a high profile attorney who represents major criminal cases such as this. Hiring such a high profile attorney might indicate that Adams fears that criminal charges could be potentially brought or that he possibly might have crossed some legal line that could result in some criminal charges or potentially violated some ethics rules. Either way, the hiring of this top criminal attorney is a pretty good sign that Adams is taking this issue very seriously and that this story has a lot more life in it yet. This might also indicate that the possibility of his resignation from office might be a real reality as well.
As a federal prosecutor, Weaver helped to bring charges against the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. In a small Oregon community, a cult founded by the Bhagwan used food poisoning to sicken the town's people in an attempt to control the local election and elect Bhagwan supporters to offices such as mayor and city council and to create an all cult controlled community. A number of cult members were either deported to India or sent to prison on various serious charges for conspiracy to poison the townspeople. Weaver also helped to convict some major swindlers of securities fraud during his career as a prosecutor and has worked closely with high level FBI and IRS agents in some of his major cases. Weaver is certainly a top lawyer. And the fact that Adams needs a lawyer of this high caliber is not a particularly good omen that Adams will remain in office for very long.
The Adams sex with an intern scandal is only the latest embarrassing Oregon story to hit the national news. Certainly the Portland Trailblazer put in a good effort to embarrass Oregon. Who knew that having sex with under-aged girls from a shopping mall was a major part of the NBA experience? And Former Senator Robert Packwood became a household joke for his sex scandal that forced his resignation from office in disgrace. And Tonya Harding became another household joke for her role in the conspiracy to whack her skating competitor in the knee when her absurd gang of misfits led by her former husband, Jeff Gillooly, and the laughable Shawn Eckhardt and Shane Stant made the news. Even Conan O'Brien could not stop himself from some hilarious re-enactments of some the events surrounding this case, because the story was so darn funny.
Thanks a lot Sam, for putting Oregon, and especially Portland back on the late night comics jokes list radar again. We really appreciate it.
Some cars in Portland feature a popular local bumper sticker that reads, "KEEP PORTLAND WIERD". Well, Sam, you're certainly doing your part. But that's certainly not the type of "hard" work we expected from the new mayor.
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