ITT JURY DISMISSED, DEADLINE SET

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09T00207R001000030011-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2011
• Sequence Number: 11
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP09TOO207RO01 000030011 -0
WASHINGTON FV5U'
STAT
ITT ,Jury Dismissed, Decdline Set
Washington Post Staff Writer
Some of the discussion could be'
heard by reporters in the courtroom,
including offers by Robinson to seal'
the courtroom during parts of the
trial and contentions by prosecutor'
John Kotelly that some defense re-
quests for evidence were not relevant.
It is and rstood that the govern-;
ment was seeking -permission: to - be
able to challenge Wall's proppsed de-
fenses at bench conferences with the'
judge during the- trial before the jury'
would be allowed to hear certain evi-
dence. United Press International re
ported, for instance, that Kotelly had
A federal judge dismissed .the jury his defense" by barring his access to
in a sensitive national security case '. some material.
yesterday and told prosecutors they Justice Department attorneys ar-
must decide' by. Monday whether to gued then, as they did again yester-
day,
drop the charges to protect Central mandedawas of relevant tto the case
Intelligence Agency secrets. .. ,against Berrellez and might jeopard-
In an action that could deter prose- . ize unrelated intelligence sources and
cution of other national - security methods. '
cases, U.S. District Court Judge Au- _ For instance, Wall had asked for
brey Robinson rejected a Justice De- CIA documents relating to Hernan
partment proposal designed to pre- Cubillos, a Chilean newspaper official
vent classified information from being mentioned in the conspiracy count
disclosed at-the perjury and conspir- against Berrellez.
acy trial of Robert Berrellez, an offi- Cubillos is now the foreign minister
cial of the International Telephone &
trial
th
th
d
d
e
ay
ay,
e
of Chile. On 11lon
Telegraph Corp.
Berrellez. 58, is accused of lying to opened, the prosecution quietly drop-
pod references to Cubillos from the
a Senate committee investigating ef-
forts by ITT and the CIA to block the
1970 election of Salvador Allende as
president of Chile.
Though Robinson's discussions with
attorneys in the ease were in secret, it
is understood that he told Justice law-
yers he will grant a defense motion to
dismiss the case unless they can get
yesterday's ruling overturned.
Appeals generally are not heard on
a judge's decision before a case is fin-
ished. The Justice Department could
try to get the U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals here to order Robinson to
change his ruling, but this so-called
mandamus procedure is rare.
'The government's concern about
protecting national secrets has been a
constant threat to the three cases
growing out of the Senate's 1973 in-
vastigation of efforts by ITT and the
CIA to influence the election in Chile.
In August, .Justice dropped three
counts of a companion indictment
against Edward J. Gerrity Jr., an ITT '
senior vice president, rather than run
the risk that classified information
might be disclosed at hit upcoming
trial.
-
Last fall, former CIA director Rich=
and M. Helms was allowed to plead no
contest to misdemeanor charges of
giving evasive testimony to the Senate
because he threatened to disclose se-
crets in his defense.
A recent Senate Intelligence Com-
mittee report on the problems of na-
tional security threats to prosecutions
referred to the defense tactic as
"graymail." In such cases, the defense
attorney keeps demanding informa-
tion from the _government until he
finds something the prosecutors have
decided they can't give tip, the report
said. 0 . .
Patrick A. Wall, Berrellez's ? attor-
r"'y. had complained in pretrial hear-
ings that the CIA was trying to limit
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witnesses from naming CIA employes
,
charges.
A jury of eight women and four office. locations or other intelligence
stat-amen :s in the Berrellez case yes-
terday morning when the judge called
opposing, attorneys to the bench to
continue-out of the jury's hearing--
arguments on the prgsecution's pro.
posed protective order. -
terday morning, Robinson called the
jury back in and announced:
"Circumstances have arisen which
make it necessary for me to discharge
You" "
Attorney General Griffin B. Bell
said at ? the time charges were filed
against Berrellez and Gerrity in April
that "You cannot decide never to
prosecute these cases that might in-
volve national security. To do so gives
people a license. That just can't be
the law."
The problems encountered since
then in the Gerrity and Berrellez
cases have led some Justice attorneys,
however, to wonder whetter such
prosecutions are ever possible.
The cases also raise questions about
the government's ability to prosecute
espionage cases, such as the one pend
ing aginst William Peter Kampiles, a
former CIA clerk accused of selling
the Soviet Union a supersecret man-
ual on a sophisticated U.S. spy satell-
lite.
Some Justice Department officials
feel that the relevancy of evidence is
much clearer in espionage cases than
it has been in the troubled cases in-
volving ITT, the CIA and Chile.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP09TOO207RO01 000030011 -0