John Haley (attorney)

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John Harvey Haley (1930 or 1931 – December 4, 2003) was an American attorney who pled guilty to an offense in connection with the Whitewater controversy.

Early life and education[edit]

Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Haley graduated from high school in Siloam Springs and earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University and his law degree from the University of Arkansas.[1]

Career[edit]

Haley clerked for Judge George Rose Smith of the Arkansas Supreme Court, then joined the Rose Law Firm as a partner and subsequently opened his own law firm in Little Rock. He later was a member of various Arkansas law firms and headed a commercial real estate company.[1]

In 1964, Haley started the Election Research Council, which was funded by Winthrop Rockefeller to expose and combat voter fraud in Arkansas.[2] Following Rockefeller's election as governor, he was appointed Chairman of the Arkansas Board of Corrections, the oversight agency of the state's Department of Corrections, where he worked for prison reform.[1][3] He was also chairman of the Arkansas Board of Law Examiners and the Arkansas Pardon and Parole Board.[1]

Haley was a friend and personal attorney of Jim Guy Tucker, who succeeded Bill Clinton as governor of Arkansas. During the Whitewater investigation, he was accused of assisting Tucker and a cable TV developer, William Marks, in concealing assets to avoid taxes through a false claim of bankruptcy.[4] He pled not guilty on one felony charge on June 22, 1995.[5] In February 1998 he pled guilty on a misdemeanor charge in exchange for dismissal of the felony charge of conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service, and was sentenced to pay a $30,000 fine and $40,000 in restitution.[6][7][8]

Personal life and death[edit]

Haley and his wife Cynthia had two sons and two daughters.[1][8] He was formerly married to Maria Luisa Mabilangan Haley; in 2007 she was appointed head of the state Department of Economic Development.[9][10]

He died at the age of 72 on December 4, 2003, when the small plane he was piloting crashed during an attempted landing at the Boone County Airport in northwest Arkansas. A passenger was also killed.[8]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e "Obituary Notice: John Harvey Haley". Roebel Funeral Home. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  2. ^ Glaze, Tom; Dumas, Ernie (2011). Waiting For The Cemetery Vote: The Fight to Stop Election Fraud in Arkansas. The University of Arkansas Press. pp. 24–41. ISBN 978-1-55728-965-0.
  3. ^ Nelson, Melissa (January 6, 2002). "Arkansas Prison Still Shackled to Dark Past". Los Angeles Times. AP.
  4. ^ Hargrove, Mary (February 21, 1998) [January 15, 1995]. "How Tucker hit big in bankruptcy court: Part I". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Archived from the original on July 19, 2003.
  5. ^ Thompson, Marilyn W. (August 28, 1995). "Caught in the Whitewater Quagmire". Washington Post.
  6. ^ "Case studies of the Clinton curse". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. February 14, 1999. Archived from the original on October 9, 1999.
  7. ^ "Caught In The Whitewater Net". CBS News. May 19, 1998. Archived from the original on April 18, 2005.
  8. ^ a b c "John Haley, 72, Whitewater Figure". New York Times. AP. December 6, 2003. Archived from the original on November 5, 2022.
  9. ^ Blomeley, Seth (February 1, 2007). "Beebe names Haley to head state's development agency". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
  10. ^ Oman, Noel (September 14, 2011). "State development chief Haley dies". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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