SMUGGLER WINS PARDON FROM CLINTON

WASHINGTON -- Bettye June Rutherford, a conservative, 69-year-old
Albuquerque grandmother, never thought she would have to request a
presidential pardon.

But she never thought she'd get busted for smuggling drugs, either.

During a telephone interview Friday, Rutherford described how she and
her daughter were arrested 11 years ago near Columbus, N.M., with 43
kilos of marijuana hidden in their car.

Rutherford said she and her daughter made about a half-dozen marijuana
runs between Albuquerque and Palomas, Mexico, before the border patrol
nabbed them in February 1990.

Rutherford has worked for a presidential pardon ever since. Last month,
with help from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Albuquerque, Rutherford got
her wish. President Clinton put her name on the list of criminals he
pardoned before he left office.

"I'm so happy," said Rutherford, who had never been arrested before her
drug bust. "I was really surprised because I'm sure there are a lot of
people who apply for pardon."

Rutherford, a former secretary, said shame prompted her push for a
pardon.

"I'm raising my grandson and I didn't want a felony hanging over my
head," she said. "I knew it was wrong and I shouldn't have done it. I
didn't know what trouble was until I went through all of this. It was
just something I did on the spur of the moment."

The Albuquerque grandmother said she and her daughter never went to jail
because they immediately agreed to testify against their drug-dealing
associates. That was a big factor in the U.S. Attorney's decision to
support Rutherford's pardon request.

Louis Valencia, an assistant U.S. attorney in Albuquerque, wrote to the
Justice Department recommending Rutherford's pardon. He said
Rutherford's case marked the only time he has supported a pardon of
someone he prosecuted. He said Rutherford had an otherwise clean
criminal record and quickly admitted her quilt.

"She was very honest right from the beginning," Valencia said. "From the
time she was stopped at the border she began to cooperate with the
government."

Rutherford said she doesn't drink or smoke and has never ingested an
illegal drug. She said she has come to realize that narcotics are "the
scourge of this country." She said she strongly supports the U.S. war on
drugs.

So why would an articulate, Christian grandmother decide to risk arrest
and disgrace in the drug trade? Money was part of it. Rutherford said
she and her daughter pocketed $1,000 apiece each time they delivered the
marijuana to Albuquerque.

Not that it was high-grade stuff they were smuggling.

"It wasn't even good marijuana from what I'm told," she said.

Rutherford said she is grateful to Clinton for granting her pardon. But
like many Americans, she isn't so sure about some of his other pardon
decisions, including the one Clinton granted Marc Rich, the
controversial fugitive who is wanted for tax evasion.

Rutherford predicted the latest Clinton scandal won't stick.

"That Clinton is something else," Rutherford said. "He's gonna weasel
out of this one, too."