Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 4 · column 2 of 5 · from the scan, no model involved
Judge supports
LaRouche plea
BOSTON — A judge’s decision to bar the use of three notebooks as evidence against Lyndon LaRouche, his aides and organizations indicted for fraud and conspiracy will not hurt the government’s case, a prosecutor says.
In a decision filed last week, U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Keeton ruled that investigators improperly seized the notebooks. He reversed an earlier decision in which he’d said investigators acted properly in taking the notebooks from the Quincy office of one of the indicted organizations, Caucus Distributors Inc.
LaRouche, meanwhile, has asked a federal appeals court to overturn an earlier decision in which Keeton refused to dismiss the case because of defense claims that prosecutors violated grand jury secrecy provisions.
The warrant allowing the October 1986 search of Caucus Distributors allowed prosecutors to seize index cards detailing a wide range of fundraising on behalf of LaRouche.
Investigators seized the three notebooks along with numerous loose index cards and 14 file boxes filled with index cards. Keeton earlier had ruled that the FBI agent who seized the notebooks acted within the scope of the warrant because the notebooks contained index cards stapled to pages.
But the judge, reconsidering the ruling at the defense’s request, said the index cards in the notebooks were not in plain view and not covered by the search warrant.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark D. Rasch said the notebooks “had very little evidentiary value.”
LaRouche, 64, is free on bail pending trial on one count of conspiring to obstruct justice. He allegedly ordered aides to shred documents and to refuse to cooperate with a federal investigation into his 1984 presidential campaign.
The LaRouche aides and organizations are charged in an alleged $1 million credit card fraud scheme to finance the 1984 campaign and with trying to cover up the alleged fraud.
The appeal of Keeton’s grand-jury ruling to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asks the court to dismiss the case because prosecutors violated secrecy provisions by disclosing LaRouche’s pending appearance before a federal grand jury in Boston. If the dismissal bid is denied, LaRouche asked that prosecutors be blocked from introducing his grand-jury testimony at trial.
94.3%