FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CRM

THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1998                                                                                                                             (202) 514-2008

                                                                                                                                                                                  TDD (202) 514-1888




FEDERAL PROBATION OFFICER PLEADS GUILTY TO FELONY MAIL FRAUD;


ADMITS ACCEPTING GIFTS IN EXCHANGE FOR PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT





	MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA -- The Department of Justice   
announced that Linda Whitehead, a veteran federal probation
officer in Minnesota, pled guilty today to engaging in a felony
mail fraud scheme in which she provided preferential treatment to
a convicted felon under her supervision, and accepted numerous
gifts and gratuities in return, including shoplifted clothing.

	Whitehead entered her guilty plea before U.S. District Judge
John R. Tunheim. 

	Whitehead admitted that, for approximately three years
between early 1995 and early 1998, she abused her official power
as a probation officer by allowing Karen Pluff, a convicted drug
felon under her supervision, to avoid routine court-ordered drug
testing by repeatedly sending  to the laboratory for analysis
someone else's urine in place of Pluff's. 

	Whitehead  also falsely certified in the official court
paperwork that the samples had been properly obtained from Karen
Pluff.  The purpose of Whitehead's scheme was to prevent the
court from detecting Pluff's continued drug usage and to enable
Pluff to avoid being sent back to federal prison for violating
the terms of her supervised release.

	Whitehead further admitted that, while she was providing
this preferential treatment to Karen Pluff, Whitehead also
accepted from Pluff numerous items of shoplifted women's clothing
and other gifts.  Whitehead admitted that she accepted the
clothing even though she had reason to know that the items had
been stolen by Pluff from local clothing stores.

	The government also charged in its information, the official
charging document, that Whitehead and Pluff smoked marijuana
together on one or two occasions during official probation
visits. 

	Whitehead, age 46 and a resident of St.Paul, Minnesota, was
employed as a federal probation officer for more than 18 years.
She voluntarily resigned this position in March 1998, after she
became the subject of a federal criminal investigation. 
Whitehead faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine
for this conviction.

	Whitehead's conviction stems from an investigation conducted
by the FBI.  She is being prosecuted by Miles F. Ehrlich of the
Justice  Department's Public Integrity Section in Washington,
D.C.

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