BAILEY'S EXPENSES COME UNDER SCRUTINY IN HEARING.

Byline: Ron Word Associated Press 

Why were five of attorney F. Lee Bailey's trips to Los Angeles during the O.J. Simpson trial billed to an unrelated drug-smuggling case whose defense costs are being paid by the U.S. government out of confiscated money?

Federal prosecutors sought answers Monday, and also asked how Bailey could justify billings for filet mignons and 200 roses sent to a jail inmate and for Bailey's $655 meals, $550-a-night hotels - and flights on the Concorde as well as his own private aircraft.

The questions were asked, but not directly answered, at a hearing called by U.S. District Judge Maurice Paul to consider Bailey's request for $1.4 million for representing drug client Claude Duboc. Prosecutors say Bailey should instead pay the government $412,322.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David McGee questioned Kenneth Barker, an accountant hired by Bailey, about the trips from Florida to Los Angeles when the attorney was on Simpson's ``Dream Team'' defense.

Barker also was asked about several commercial airline trips, 10 trips in Bailey's personal aircraft and hotel expenditures in Switzerland and France.

Bailey was imprisoned earlier this year after he failed to adequately account for the millions spent from a Swiss bank account established from stock formally owned by Duboc.

Prosecutors contend Bailey, whose clients have included Patty Hearst and the Boston Strangler, was allowed to use the account to maintain Duboc's posh French estates only until they could be sold, and the money could be forfeited to the U.S. government. Bailey claimed the money was his to keep for representing Duboc, who later fired him.

Bailey was forced to repay $4.7 million to get out of jail and was given until mid-June to seek legal fees and to document his expenses.

In that documentation, Bailey didn't ask for any legal fees for himself but did seek $165,000 to pay other lawyers who helped represent Duboc.

Also testifying Monday was Suzanne Albright, Bailey's office bookkeeper, who was questioned about $103,689 paid to Karen Albert. Albert, the wife of a Levy County Jail inmate, was paid to keep Duboc happy while he was in the same jail in the tiny town of Bronson, near Gainesville.

She ran errands for Duboc, took him sushi, filet mignon and even 200 roses. She also arranged to have unlimited telephone service installed at the jail for his use.

Albright said that at one meeting with prosecutors about Albert's services to Duboc, she was told, ``We want to keep Claude happy, provide him services to keep him cooperating with the government.''

McGee accused Albright of lying about that, but she refused to back down.

Prosecutors maintain that much of Bailey's spending, including what was paid to Albert, was unreasonable. They cited a $1,013 suit Bailey purchased at Neiman Marcus for Duboc.

A shackled Duboc, who in 1994 pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against others, sat through Monday's court proceedings. He hasn't been sentenced.

Prosecutors haven't objected to about $10 million spent to maintain Duboc's estate. Nor are they questioning most of the legal fees, though they are objecting to a $36,000 bill for a French lawyer who defended Duboc's father in a money laundering investigation.

McGee claims taxpayers shouldn't be billed for much of Bailey's first-class air travel and his expensive meals and stays at posh resorts in Switzerland and France. Instead, the government should pay $200 a night for hotels and $50 a meal for time spent in Europe.

``Mr. Bailey's extravagance is obvious in his many European travels, '' McGee said in his court filing.