Competency hearing postponed for Cooley

MEDFORD, Ore. – A former congressman from Oregon who fought unsuccessfully to keep his seat in the mid-1990s after being caught lying about his military record is fighting to stay out of prison 16 years later.

Wester “Wes” Shadric Cooley, 78, a Republican from Powell Butte who served one term after being elected in 1994, was indicted by a California grand jury in 2009 on six counts of money laundering. He also faces one count of filing a false income tax return in 2002 to conceal more than $1.1 million in what Uncle Sam considers illicit income.

Cooley faces up to 38 years in federal prison if convicted.

His attorney maintains that Cooley, who suffered a stroke early in 2004 and has had subsequent heart problems, is incompetent to stand trial because of dementia related to his failing health, according to papers filed Dec. 3 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

However, U.S. Assistant Attorney Stephen Cazares in Los Angeles challenges that claim, saying that after four months of evaluation and treatment in the Federal Medical Center in Bunter, N.C., the defendant was found to be competent.

Moreover, the report found evidence of malingering by Cooley, Cazares said in court papers.

A court-ordered competency hearing for Cooley was scheduled Dec. 8 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles but was continued to Jan. 11. If the defendant is found competent to stand trial, it will begin Feb. 8 in the Los Angeles court.

Prosecutors say Cooley was involved in a scheme associated with the sale of shares of Bidbay.com, a startup Internet auction firm, and several related shell companies.

The indictment alleges that investors were lured by false statements, including a claim that Bidbay was about to be acquired by eBay, and lost more than $10 million.

The criminal charges are on top of a 2005 civil case in St. Louis in which a U.S. district court jury ordered Cooley and a business associate to pay more than $2.1 million to 11 people. During that case, Cooley said a series of strokes the year before left him unable to remember anything for the previous 15 years.

Cooley was elected as a state senator in 1992. Two years later, while midway through that term, he was elected to Congress to represent Oregon’s 2nd District.

In the spring of 1996, when he was running for re-election to Congress, the Mail Tribune questioned his statement in the 1994 Voters Pamphlet that he had served in the Army Special Forces in Korea. Lying in an official voters guide is a felony in Oregon.

Army records revealed that Cooley did not finish training at Fort Bragg, N.C., until nearly after the war had ended and that he had never left the states, the Mail Tribune reported.

Under increased pressure from the GOP, Cooley withdrew from the race. In December 1996, Cooley was indicted for lying about his military service in the 1994 Voters Pamphlet.

Although he claimed the documents proving his assertions were destroyed in a fire, Cooley later accepted a plea agreement in Marion County Circuit Court, where he was convicted of lying in an official document.