FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CRM

FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1998                                                                                                                                    (202) 514-2008

                                                                                                                                                                                  TDD (202) 514-1888




ST. PAUL WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO GIVING SHOPLIFTED CLOTHING


TO FEDERAL PROBATION OFFICER TO AVOID DRUG TESTING





	WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice announced that
Karen M. Pluff, a St. Paul woman previously convicted of drug and
shoplifting offenses, pled guilty today to giving illegal
gratuities, including numerous items of shoplifted clothing, to a
federal probation officer, in exchange for preferential
treatment.

	Pluff entered her guilty plea to this felony charge today
before U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim.  Linda Whitehead, the
probation officer, pled guilty yesterday to a different felony
charge arising from the same conduct.

	Pluff was supervised by probation officer Whitehead while on
release following a federal drug conspiracy conviction.  In
court, Pluff admitted that, over a period of approximately three
years between early 1995 and early 1998, she gave Whitehead
expensive women's business suits and other items she had stolen
from local clothing stores, and in return Whitehead routinely
submitted for court-ordered drug testing someone else's urine
sample in place of Pluff's.  This urine sample substitution
enabled Pluff to smoke marijuana without being sent back to
prison for violating the terms of her supervised release.

	Pluff, 31, a resident of St. Paul, Minnesota, faces up to
two years in prison and a $250,000 fine for this conviction.

	Pluff'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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