U.S. INTERVENED HERE FOR ANIT-RED FLIER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400010033-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 26, 2000
• Sequence Number: 33
• Publication Date: May 17, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

i\111&N;1A1pred For Release 2000Y24 76A-DP7
Reporter of The Miami News
::-Ievel Washington official secretly intervened in a
criminal court case here two weeks ago to aid Allan Lawrence
Pope, the South Dade pilot who spent four years in an In-
donesian prison for flying with anti-Communist rebels.
The judge, prosecutor and complaining witnesses were all
told in hushed tones that it "wouldn't be in the national interest"
to jail Pope, The Miami News learned yesterday.
"They all but came out and said he was a CIA man,','
recalls one participant.
State Attorney Richard Gerstein refused to confirm or deny
that his office received the. calls from Washington.
."I have absolutely no comment," he -said.
Pope, a lean and unsmiling man, faced charges of ag-
STATINTL
ner
gravated assault as the result of "capturing" six quail hunters
at gunpoint for ...aged trespass on his mother's South Dade,
land.
The hunters said they were on adjoining property and
complained of brutal "battlefield tactics" by Pope. Richard'
Clark, brother of Miami City Commissioner Steve Clark, charg.
ed that the husky flier knocked him down with a gun butt,
stamped in a rib and kicked him in the groin.
Subsequently, a reliable source relates, the Clarks were
approached by Assistant State Attorney Arthur Huttoe, aide to
Gerstein. Huttoe told them of the Washington calls and asked
them to drop criminal charges.
Dick Clark at first refused emphatically, but after a con-'
firmation of the high-level plea of "national interest," agreed
to a compromise on ''a lesser charge and probation. He has
since filed a $5,000 civil damage suit against Pope for his
injuries.
in court before Judge Jack Falk, Pope pleaded "nolo con-
tendere," or no defense, to simple assault and battery.
Huttoe recommended probation. It was also pointed out that
Pope "travels a lot in his work" and the requirement of re-
porting in durlitg his two years probation was waived.
The 35-year-old Pope, whose 'last address was c-o Southern
Air Transport, Tachikawa Air Base, Japan, walked out of court
and vanished.
His mother, widow of a pioneer South Dade grower, gave
a firm "no comment" to inquires for him yesterday at her
home, on Eureka Drive near Newton Road.
If the persuasive story told local officials is true, she has
a special letter from a President of the United States com-
nmending her son, Allan, as an unsung "national hero."
Approved For Release 2000/05/24: CIA-RDP75-00001 R000400010033-7