Couple Needs Loan After Being Fined For Taping Gingrich Call

A couple say they are taking out a bank loan to pay $1,000 in fines for illegally taping a cellular phone call in which Newt Gingrich talked about his ethics problems.

John and Alice Martin held hands in court Friday as their lawyer asked for a small fine, saying they had only $300.

They each could have faced fines of up to $5,000. The Martins, self-described political junkies, pleaded guilty Friday to single charges of using a radio scanner to intercept a cellular telephone call.

Martin, a school maintenance worker from Fort White, and his wife, a teacher’s aide, were on a shopping trip to Lake City on Dec. 21 and listening to a hand-held scanner.

When they recognized the House Speaker’s voice, they pulled over and began taping it to capture history for their grandchildren.

The couple, both longtime Democrats, turned the tape over to their congresswoman, Karen Thurman. At her advice, they gave it to U.S. Rep. James McDermott, the ranking Democrat on the House Ethics Committee.

McDermott said the call breached Gingrich’s agreement not to orchestrate a response to his ethical wrongdoing. Republicans said the transcript showed Gingrich was following the agreement.

In the furor over the tape’s contents and its disclosure, which also could be a crime, McDermott removed himself from the ethics panel’s investigation of Gingrich.