Alcee Hastings Trial and Impeachment: 1983 & 1989 - The Alleged Plot

Word had gotten through to the FBI that William Borders, Jr., a prominent Washington, D.C., attorney and old friend of Hastings, was claiming that he could arrange for favorable sentences by Hastings in return for a payment. To test this, in September 1981, the FBI had a retired agent named Paul Rico pose as Frank Romano, one of two brothers who in 1980 had been convicted of racketeering in Hastings' court. The Romanos had already been sentenced to three years in prison and $1.2 million of their assets had been seized, but the FBI agent posing as Frank (the brothers were out on appeal) arranged with Borders (who had never seen the Romanos) to get the sentence reduced to probation and for $845,000 to be returned. For this, Borders demanded $150,000, a generous portion of which, he claimed, would go to Hastings.

Immediately after Borders made the deal with Rico/Romano, Hastings did issue an order returning $845,000. But because the government arrested Borders the instant he took possession of the money, the government never could actually prove that any of it went to Hastings.

Borders went to trial in March 1982, was found guilty, and was sentenced to five years in prison. Hastings brought a legal action to establish that a federal judge could not be tried without first having been impeached, but the courts rejected this and he was brought to trial.