Rep. Greene’s Husband Enters Not Guilty Plea

WASHINGTON —  Joseph Waldholtz, the estranged husband of Rep. Enid Greene (R-Utah), pleaded not guilty in federal court Friday to a 27-count bank fraud indictment.

U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson set a hearing for May 30 and allowed Waldholtz to remain free without bail.

However, she also required Waldholtz, who is living at his parents’ home in Pittsburgh, Pa., to check in daily by phone with an FBI agent and travel only between Pittsburgh and Washington. Waldholtz’s passport has been revoked.

“My attorney requested that I make no comment,” Waldholtz, 32, told reporters afterward outside the courthouse. “In the future, and at the appropriate time, I hope to be able to discuss the facts in this case. Until then, I shall remain uncharacteristically silent.”

Waldholtz, however, has been talking with prosecutors; they are trying to learn about the nearly $3 million in worthless checks he is accused of writing, plus alleged financial irregularities in his estranged wife’s campaigns for Congress in 1992 and 1994.

Waldholtz, who played a key role in his wife’s 1994 election, is accused of kiting checks to make it appear that there were large balances in two accounts maintained by the couple.

The accounts actually were in the red, and Waldholtz ended up spending $209,000 the couple did not have, prosecutors allege.

Greene, who has resumed using her maiden name, said she did not know how her husband was handling the couple’s finances.

She filed for divorce Nov. 14, three days after her husband disappeared as investigators searched for him in connection with case. He reappeared after six days.

None of these problems prevented Waldholtz from making an emotional appeal to Greene.

“To my wife, I would like to say, ‘Happy Mother’s Day,’ ” Waldholtz said. “The next time I’m in Washington, I hope you allow me the same luxury you have--and that’s to spend time with our daughter.”