Like Hale, McDougal suffered from life-threatening illness. Federal officials, without explanation, withheld McDougal's life-sustaining medication. With McDougal in mind, I am worried that Judge Hale may not survive a stint in the Arkansas prison system. Hung Out to Dry Like other key witnesses who helped Starr, including Linda Tripp, Judge Hale was left out to dry. After Hale had served in federal prison, a local Arkansas state prosecutor named Mark Stodola decided to prosecute Hale for making false or misleading statements to state insurance regulators.
Talk is cheap, however.
Hale was left to fight the state charges alone. In 1999, he was convicted of the state charges. He appealed the conviction on the grounds that prosecutors had improperly questioned him about his role in the Whitewater matter. He claimed that federal prosecutors had granted him immunity from future prosecutions in exchange for his cooperation with the Whitewater investigation. Hale said that in using information from his federal case, the Arkansas prosecutors acted wrongly.