Feds watch over Hsu's recovery

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Sep 8, 2007 | by Howard MintzSTAFF

It won't be long before outlaw Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu trades his hospital menu for jail food.

Under watch by federal agents in a western Colorado hospital, Hsu is recovering from an undisclosed illness that apparently struck him on his latest attempt to duck a 15-year-old arrest warrant, another bizarre chapter in a legal odyssey that has rippled through Democratic Party circles and the presidential campaign.

Few new details emerged Friday on how Hsu, who failed to appear for a scheduled court date on Wednesday in San Mateo County, wound up in Grand Junction, Colo., a self-described winehaven west of Denver.

But Joseph Schadler, an FBI spokesman in San Francisco, said that Hsu would soon appear in a Colorado federal courtroom to be extradited back to California, where he still faces a three-year prison term for a 1991 fraud conviction in San Mateo County.

Legal experts do not expect Hsu, now a serial fugitive, to be eligible for bail again.

The 56-year-old Hsu, a major Democratic political donor whose plight has become political fodder, was still too ill Friday to make his court appearance and will need to be healthy enough to be transported back to the Bay Area, the FBI said. The hospital has listed him in fair condition.

The FBI and California attorney general's office both said Friday that once Hsu is extradited, he would then be returned to state custody, where he'll wind up back before a San Mateo judge.

The FBI apprehended Hsu Thursday evening in Grand Junction, where agents were alerted by local police and fire officials who responded to a call for emergency medical help for the ailing fugitive as he steamed along on an eastbound Amtrak train headed to Denver from Emeryville.

It is not clear what Hsu's final destination would have been, although he was traveling on a ticket to Denver, according to Amtrak. When Hsu first became a fugitive in 1992, he fled to his native Hong Kong for some period of time before returning to the United States.

James Brosnahan, Hsu's lawyer, did not return a phone call seeking comment. Brosnahan was left at the legal altar on Wednesday, when Hsu was supposed to appear in Superior Court in Redwood City for another bail hearing. In that hearing, Hsu's lawyer was actually expected to argue that his client's $2 million bail should be lowered.

A senior law enforcement official said Hsu did arrive Wednesday morning in Oakland on a chartered jet from his New York home, but instead of driving to Redwood City he wound up on a train headed in the opposite direction.

Once on that Denver-bound train, Hsu apparently became ill and fell, said Mike Page, a spokesman for the Grand Junction fire department. Page said his department received a call from Amtrak officials around 11:15 a.m. Thursday to send an ambulance and fire truck for a then-unknown passenger who'd been stricken ill.

The prolific Democratic fundraiser's legal troubles date back to 1992, when he skipped out on a three-year prison sentence after he'd pleaded no contest to a $1 million fraud scheme related to a bogus scam to resell latex gloves. When Hsu's criminal past was revealed in recent weeks, he vowed to return to California and face the consequences, suggesting he was unaware there was an old warrant for his arrest.

He did return to a San Mateo courtroom on Aug. 31, when a judge set bail for him at $2 million. But Hsu fled again, a fresh warrant was issued for his arrest and the state attorney general asked the FBI to help hunt him down.

Despite his status as a fugitive the past 15 years, Hsu lived what his attorneys called a "very public life," donating and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for Democrats, including presidential contenders Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Since news accounts revealed that the Democratic benefactor was a convict and fugitive, politicians have been scrambling to distance themselves from Hsu and his contributions, donating them to charity.

This election season, Hsu served as a so-called bundler for several Democratic candidates, and was dubbed a "Hillraiser" for his pledge to raise $100,000 for Clinton's campaign. Both Clinton and Obama are donating Hsu's contributions to charity.

On Friday, the California Republican Party asked the state's Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate whether Hsu was violating campaign reporting provisions.

Contact Howard Mintz at hmintz(at)mercurynews.com or (408) 286- 0236.