Former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell misrepresented testimony and persuaded the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to stretch its policy to mind-boggling extremes to get into a substance-abuse program that would have shaved four months off his sentence, according to recently unsealed court documents.

Campbell, serving a 30-month sentence for tax evasion, graduated from the 500-hour residential rehabilitation program during which he told prison officials he drank bottles of champagne daily. His "certificate of completion," awarded Dec. 7, 2007, acknowledges Campbell's "effort toward his personal growth."

The former mayor was moved into a halfway house earlier this year and, as credit for taking the program, was going to get an early release.

But when federal prosecutors in Atlanta caught wind of it, they protested vigorously and asked that Campbell be re-evaluated. After a combative interview with Campbell on Feb. 28, a prison administrator revoked Campbell's substance-abuse designation allowing his early release.

Instead of getting out four months early on June 23, Campbell will now be released Oct. 25. He is incarcerated at a low-security prison near Miami.

The saga of Campbell's quest to seek treatment for an alcohol problem prosecutors say he never had is revealed in recently unsealed court documents in U.S. District Court in Miami. The documents were disclosed during litigation brought by Campbell after he was yanked from the halfway house and returned to prison. Campbell, who served as Atlanta's mayor from 1994 to 2002, has since withdrawn that lawsuit.

Campbell's lawyer, Patricia Jean Kyle of Miami, said in an e-mail Wednesday that it initially appeared the Bureau of Prisons overstepped its authority in rescinding Campbell's early release. "Ultimately, Mr. Campbell agreed that the [bureau] had not acted beyond its authority" and then dismissed his complaint, she said.

Before the case was closed, however, federal prosecutors went on the offensive, spelling out in great detail the inconsistencies in the statements Campbell made to get into the program.

According to the unsealed documents, an investigative report on Campbell, prepared by a U.S. probation officer prior to his sentencing, noted that the former mayor said he "drinks alcoholic beverages in order to participate in toasts. He has not otherwise drank alcohol and just does not like the taste of it."

The statement was consistent with court filings by Campbell's own legal team when they asked for a lenient sentence.

"Mr. Campbell is a well-educated man, with no health or substance abuse problems," they wrote. "As such, Mr. Campbell is not in need of the already thinly spread services offered by the correctional system."

Champagne waiting

But in December 2006, a few months after beginning his prison term, Campbell wrote prison officials that he was a champagne alcoholic whose drinking problems were "painful and embarrassing to recount." He also alleged that government witnesses at his trial testified "without contradiction that I was consuming bottles of champagne on a regular basis," court records say.

There was no such testimony in Campbell's trial, prosecutors said. In fact, witnesses testified that Campbell didn't drink, although he would make sure champagne was waiting in a hotel room for his longtime mistress, Marion Brooks, when she arrived in Atlanta. Prosecutors also disclosed a memo summarizing an interview Brooks gave federal authorities, in which she said Campbell "does not drink alcohol."

However, a government substance-abuse coordinator decided that the pre-sentence investigation report — which said Campbell only drank to join in toasts — was sufficient reason to put him into the rehab program. That decision by Beth Weinman, the Bureau of Prisons' drug-abuse programs coordinator in Washington, overturned a prior determination that Campbell should be denied entry into a residential substance abuse program.

Campbell asked to get into the program in October 2006, court records say. But Pamela Weathers, a drug-abuse program coordinator in Miami, turned him down, citing insufficient documentation of alcohol dependency.

Campbell was undeterred. Two months later, he wrote to the regional coordinator of the program in Tallahassee, asking him to reconsider.

"I desperately need the help that the program would provide," Campbell wrote. "I hope that your review will help you come to that conclusion."

Campbell said he provided information from two doctors, a cardiologist in Atlanta and an anesthesiologist in Tallahassee, who had treated him for alcohol abuse.

Campbell's request made its way to Washington, where Weinman granted Campbell admission.

Weinman wrote that bureau policy says that an inmate may be admitted to the program if there is "any written documentation" in an inmate's file that indicates the inmate previously used the same substance he now says he is now dependent upon. The pre-sentence report that said he drank alcohol during toasts "serves as documentation," she wrote.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons could not be reached for immediate comment.

When federal prosecutors found out that Campbell had obtained an early release date based on a designation of alcohol dependency, they protested, the recently unsealed court documents say.

If Campbell truly needed treatment, he should get it, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias and Sally Yates, the lead prosecutor of Campbell's case, wrote to the Bureau of Prisons. But they cited reports by probation officers who had interviewed Campbell and who had regular contact with him up until his sentencing. The probation officers said they saw no indication of alcoholism.

Campbell also made repeated statements he had no problems with alcohol, the prosecutors said.

Moreover, "not a single witness gave the slightest indication in an interview or in testimony that Mr. Campbell had an alcohol abuse problem," they wrote. "In fact, the evidence is quite to the contrary — the witnesses reported that Mr. Campbell does not drink."

After receiving the prosecutors' letter, the Bureau of Prisons dispatched a psychology administrator to interview Campbell.

'Self-medicated' stress

In a March 6 memo, the administrator, C. Lohman, said he found it difficult to accept Campbell's statements about alcohol abuse at face value. When asked to explain possibly inconsistent information, Campbell "became angry and tried to derail the questions by recounting his opinion about the unfairness of the justice system and his prosecution," Lohman wrote.

"His presentation of his recent substance abuse seemed practiced and less than genuine," he added.

Lohman also found unacceptable the notes provided from the two doctors. The Atlanta cardiologist said he was unable to produce notes made at the time he met with Campbell because they were lost when he moved offices. Because Campbell said his relationship with the Tallahassee anesthesiologist, whom he met in college, was more personal than professional, his documentation was also inadequate, Lohman said.

After Campbell was removed from his halfway house and returned to prison, he filed suit on March 11 against the Bureau of Prisons, calling the process a "sham." The suit said that Campbell had been in "self denial" about his alcohol abuse until his incarceration when he no longer had access "to the alcohol with which he had self-medicated personal stress resulting from the investigation, trial, media pressure and family tragedies."

After the suit was filed, a federal judge quickly scheduled a March 17 hearing. But Campbell then agreed to dismiss the lawsuit and sought to seal pleadings and exhibits. But at the government's request, U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro in Miami recently unsealed many records in the case.