PHOENIX, Ariz. -- One year after his conviction on fraud charges forced him to resign in disgrace, former Gov. Fife Symington spends his days not in prison but in the aromatic kitchens of a renowned cooking school.
J. Fife Symington III, scion of blueblood wealth and Eastern establishment, is slicing, dicing and julienning his way toward becoming a gourmet chef."I've always wanted to learn to cook," he said. "I'm a pretty good breakfast cook, and for 20 years I've wanted to do this."
Symington, a two-term Republican governor, was convicted a year ago Wednesday on federal charges of defrauding lenders of $23 million as a real estate developer in the 1980s and early '90s. He tearfully resigned two days later.
A judge sentenced Symington to 2 1/2 years in prison, but he remains free on appeal.
These days, Symington, 53, and his wife, Ann, spend 6 1/2 hours a day, five days a week in a 15-month degree program at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute. The ex-governor, whose wife is a partner in Roy's, a posh Scottsdale eatery, says his $17,000 cooking classes are therapeutic.
"The faculty and students' heads turned at first -- we don't get many governors, or ex-governors -- but after the first morning that settled down," school president Darren Leite said. "He and Ann are excellent students and other students treat them like normal people."
Besides learning the intricacies of flambes and meringues, Symington also scrubs floors, peels potatoes and washes greasy pans. Those are valuable skills should his appeal fail, forcing him to report to a minimum-security prison at Nellis Air Force Base outside Las Vegas.
"I'll be the best cook Nellis ever had," he said with a grin.
Friends say Symington has made a seamless transition from a politician surrounded by security officers and other trappings of power to a private citizen who drives his own car.
"As long as I've known him, no matter what you throw at him, he's got a very fertile mind and a creative mind and he moved on to the next subject," said George Leckie, a longtime friend. "He doesn't look back."
Yet Symington's face turns crimson when the subject turns to the seven-year federal investigation of his finances that ultimately led to his conviction on seven counts of bank and wire fraud; one count was later thrown out.
"What happened here a year ago was terribly wrong," said Symington, who still contends the probe was politically motivated and that numerous errors on his financial statements given to lenders were unintentional.
David Schindler, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Symington, said he's not surprised that the former governor shows no contrition.
"We presented the facts to a jury and the jury concluded that he lied and defrauded lenders and caused millions of dollars in losses. That he continues to attempt to deflect responsibility, rationalize, mudsling, is perhaps the greatest reflection of who he really is," Schindler said.
Ann Symington, an heiress to the Olin chemical fortune, likely picked up the tab for cooking lessons. Symington declared personal bankruptcy in 1995, listing about $25 million in debts, and the couple's finances are separate.
A group of union pension funds that loaned Symington $10 million for his failed Mercado project is suing him in federal bankruptcy court, but no trial date has been set.
Symington's appeal is based on the dismissal of a juror seven days into deliberations. Mary Jane Cotey was removed after other jurors complained she was unable to concentrate on the case and refused to discuss her opinions. An alternate was added and deliberations began anew.
Cotey said later she would have voted to acquit and said fellow jurors forced her off the panel because they wanted to convict Symington.
Symington's appeal is expected to be heard by the federal appeals court in San Francisco in December or early next year.
Prosecutors tried unsuccessfully recently to block Symington's request to spend next Christmas scuba diving with his family in Honduras, arguing that he might hide assets there or not return. Symington chuckled at the media attention his vacation plans attracted.
"I said honey, let's face it, I'm 'The Truman Show,' " Symington said, referring to the movie starring Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, a man whose life is the most popular television show in the world.
"'Where's Fife now? Where's he going on vacation?' I've become 'The Truman Show' in Arizona."