WIFE, FRIENDS SAY LEGISLATOR HONEST, DECENT

ALEXANDRIA -- The wife of House Speaker Charles DeWitt said Thursday
allegations her husband has any ties to drug use, prostitution or
political corruption are ludicrous.

"This is just bizarre, unbelievable," Patricia "Dale" DeWitt said
during a break from her job as a registered nurse. "I back Charlie
all the way. None of it is true.

"I have not had any infidelity since we have been married," she said.
"It has always just been us."

One day after Charles DeWitt's name surfaced in a federal and state
probe, the idea that the area's most powerful politician could be in
any trouble was dismissed as outlandish by those who know him best.

Dale DeWitt sounded incredulous that her husband's name is linked
with a Baton Rouge investigation that has already led to four arrests.

U.S. Attorney Brian Jackson confirmed Thursday his office is looking
at allegations involving a small number of people, but said the
review is still in its early stages.

The speaker's wife said her husband's involvement in the controversy
might stem from political skullduggery.

"This is really dirty politics," she said. "I do have an idea. I
really do have an idea." She declined to elaborate.

DeWitt, 54, is in his second year as speaker of the House, one of
state government's most powerful jobs.

He and his wife have been married 35 years. They have two grown
children, a son in Houston and a daughter in Baton Rouge.

"He is a family man. He's devastated that something like this would
come out," Dale DeWitt said of her husband.

Other allies in this city on the Red River repeatedly described the
Democrat as an affable, backslapping politician who would never be
involved in an embarrassing scandal.

"Charlie DeWitt would be one of the last people on earth involved in
this type of thing," said John "Jock" Scott, who has known the
speaker since childhood and once shared a seat with him on the floor
of the state House.

"When he came to Baton Rouge he had been there one week and he knew
more secretaries and clerks than I did, and I had already been there
four years," Scott said.

"Charlie is a salt-of-the-earth type person."

Scott said nightly entertainment around the speaker's Pentagon
Barracks apartment in Baton Rouge often produced big turnouts even
when the speaker was not present.

"Gosh, everybody attends those functions," he said. "Students at LSU,
aides. Those things are very, very informal and open."

In Baton Rouge, other lawmakers said they believe DeWitt.

Gov. Mike Foster said he met Thursday with DeWitt and said believes
the longtime legislator is "one of the most decent people I've ever
known.

"Charlie looked me in the eye and said: 'I haven't done anything
wrong, governor, I swear to you.'

"I'd make book on that," Foster said. "It will be shown that he did
nothing illegal. Maybe Charlie had some friends who weren't the best
in the world that he may have been around, but I can tell you he's a
decent man."

"There's a lot of rumors. It's crazy," said former state Rep. Chuck
McMains, R-Baton Rouge, who recently resigned his seat in the
Legislature.

"I don't for a moment believe Charlie has any connection with cocaine
or prostitutes. Maybe whiskey," said McMains, who was a committee
chairman under DeWitt.

Rep. Tommy Wright, D-Jena, said he and a number of younger
legislators sometimes go out to local restaurants and bars after
evening legislative sessions, but he's never noticed anything
suspicious involving drugs or prostitutes.

"Who would be paying for sex when it's free out there?" Wright asked.

Ann Johnson, owner of Lea's Lunch Room in nearby Lecompte, dismissed
the allegations.

"I would never believe that," said Johnson, the daughter of the
restaurant's founder. "It is just the most way out thing."

Rapides Parish Assessor Ralph Gill, who grew up with the speaker,
said DeWitt is well-regarded in the community.

"I just don't believe Charlie would be fooling with this," Gill said.

Gill and others said the speaker's clout in the Legislature,
including his role in helping to win legislative approval this year
to make LSU- Alexandria a four-year university, solidified his
standing with voters.

"Anytime you have a floor leader, or someone who occupies a high
position, the local area has some benefits from it," Rapides Parish
District Attorney Jim Downs said.

"I know that he is an effective legislator from this area."

Some who know DeWitt were puzzled over his decision to hire a lawyer
and issue a prepared statement denying wrongdoing.

Others said privately that, while they admire and support DeWitt,
they prefer to see how things unfold before reaching any final
conclusions.

But most were like veteran Alexandria Mayor Ned Randolph, a former
lawmaker himself, who has known DeWitt since both attended Bolton
High School.

"That's just not the Charlie DeWitt we know," Randolph said. "I would
be shocked if any of it was true."