Fair Trial

The swirl of legal issues complicating the case against Gen. Manuel A. Noriega took another turn Tuesday when the Cable News Network handed a federal magistrate several jailhouse tape recordings of the former Panamanian dictator talking with his lawyers. The magistrate, William C. Turnoff, is to review the conversations and then report to U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler on whether broadcast of the tapes damages the general's right to a fair trial on drug-dealing charges.

Attorneys for John Walker Lindh argued in court Thursday that he cannot get a fair trial in suburban Washington and that his case on charges of betraying his country should either be dismissed or moved to his native Bay Area. The lawyers, led by San Francisco attorney James J. Brosnahan, complained that federal prosecutors had Lindh indicted in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Va., because it is near the scene of the Sept.

The Supreme Court on Thursday reaffirmed the power of states to restrict what criminal defense lawyers may say about their clients and the charges they face. By a 5-4 vote, the court ruled that a lawyer's normal free speech rights are outweighed by the danger of a "substantial likelihood of material prejudice" to a fair trial.

In the early stages of one of the biggest Ventura County murder cases in the past decade, prosecutors went to the judge in December with a highly unusual request: seal the grand jury transcript and other key court documents from the public. The case involves the slaying and carjacking of Westlake nurse Kellie O'Sullivan and the arrest of a 19-year-old defendant, Mark Scott Thornton of Thousand Oaks. Superior Court Judge Charles R.

Attorneys for four Los Angeles police officers accused of beating Rodney G. King asked a judge Monday to delay the trial and move it elsewhere, claiming a pervasive "lynch mob atmosphere" makes it impossible for a fair trial. "It will be impossible," wrote attorney William Kopeny, who represents Officer Theodore J. Briseno, "to find a single juror who has not seen portions of the . . . video numerous times, and virtually impossible to find a juror who has not already decided the issue of guilt."

Laurence M. Powell--the only one of four Los Angeles Police officers not fully exonerated by a Ventura County jury in the beating of Rodney G. King--was ordered Friday to stand trial a second time in the assault of the black motorist. In granting the prosecution's request for a retrial, Superior Court Judge Stanley M. Weisberg rejected arguments by Powell's lawyer that in the wake of riots spawned by the acquittals in the first trial, his client could not get a fair trial anywhere in California.

An accused terrorist suspected of smuggling explosives across the Canadian border will be tried in Los Angeles, not in the city that canceled its millennial celebration after his arrest, a federal judge ruled Friday. Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian national who was arrested with enough explosives in the trunk of his car to blow up a building, cannot receive a fair trial in Seattle because of massive publicity about the case, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour ruled.

A lawyer for Manuel Noriega, saying it might be one of his last acts in the Noriega case, filed a motion today to dismiss the charges against the deposed Panamanian dictator, citing in part disputed tapes of Noriega telephone conversations with counsel. Frank Rubino accused the government of a conspiracy to deny Noriega's rights to a fair trial and effective legal counsel. The motion accuses the government of misconduct by taping Noriega's prison phone calls with his attorneys.

A federal judge Friday ordered government prosecutors to detail the contents and whereabouts of 27 seized bank accounts of Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega, following a motion by Noriega's defense lawyers to withdraw because they have not been paid. Noriega, who is imprisoned on drug charges, "must have acquired some assets of his own in 20 years in the Panamanian army free of taint (of drug deals)," said U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler during a meeting in open court.

A federal judge in Los Angeles ordered Northrop Corp. on Thursday to stop running a series of television ads that she said could materially impair a fair trial in a major fraud case the U.S. government has lodged against the aerospace firm. U.S. Circuit Court Judge Pamela A. Rymer heeded the pleas of lawyers from the U.S.