Noriega behind bars: Legal hurdles stand in way of 'justice'
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Gone are the trappings of power - the opulent homes, the luxury cars. Gone, too, are the gun-toting henchmen and cowed Panamanian people. Manuel Noriega is alone in a locked cell.
The ousted Panamanian leader, arraigned Thursday in Miami on drug trafficking charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life, has lost everything to the United States - which both empowered and toppled him. And his future seems to hold only a long, humiliating legal wrangle. The once-proud Maximum Leader's punishment has already begun.
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Not guilty 52 times; McMartin case 'poisoned' all; Missing: Kids' story 'in their own words'
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LOS ANGELES - A tiny child's voice filled a courtroom 32 months ago with a horrific tale of molestation and a cat gutted with a knife.
Eight other child witnesses followed with even more bizarre tales of sexual abuse and animal killings at the McMartin Pre-School.
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Secord gets probation; calls Reagan 'cowardly'
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Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard Secord, sentenced Wednesday to two years' probation after pleading guilty to lying to Congress about the Iran-contra scandal, still says he's done nothing wrong.
Saving most of his ire for ex-President Ronald Reagan, Secord said after his sentencing that the nation's former commander-in-chief ducked responsibility for the Iran-contra affair. "I think it's cowardly."
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Mob-busters try to collar 'Dapper Don'
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NEW YORK - New Yorkers call him the "Dapper Don." The press has dubbed him the "Last Godfather."
And crimebusters practically salivate subpoenas at the mere mention of his name - John Gotti, seen by many as the USA's last don.
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Many Alaskans are sympathetic with Hazelwood
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Joseph Hazelwood sat stoically as the not-guilty verdicts were read Thursday.
But those around him at the defense table in the Anchorage courtroom jumped for joy.
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N.Y. verdict's 'message': No more hate
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The conviction Thursday of a white teen in a racially charged New York slaying is a a sign of racial justice, prosecutors and black activists say.
A Brooklyn jury convicted Joseph Fama, 19, of second-degree murder in the Aug. 23 death of Yusuf Hawkins, 16.
Former national security adviser John Poindexter became the first Iran-contra defendant to receive prison time Monday - a six-month sentence.
Federal Judge Harold Greene said Poindexter and former aide Oliver North "engaged in the destruction of evidence on a large scale - one step ahead of the Congress and two steps away from the attorney general and the FBI."
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'Vindication' for Imelda
July 30, 1990
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Imelda Marcos' acquittal on her 61st birthday Monday won't mean her wish to return to the Philippines will come true anytime soon.
A federal grand jury in New York acquitted her of fraud and racketeering counts charging she took $222 million from the Philippines to buy real estate, jewelry and art.
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Heavy metal on trial; Nevada judge will decide landmark suit
July 16, 1990
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On Dec. 23, 1985, heavy metal fans James Vance and Ray Belknap went to a Sparks, Nev., playground and chanting, "Do it, do it, do it," put a shotgun to their heads and pulled the trigger.
Still on the turntable in Ray's room was Judas Priest's 1978 album "Stained Class."
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Jogger: No memory of 'wilding' attack
July 17, 1990
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NEW YORK - The "Central Park jogger" appeared in public for the first time Monday to tell a startled courtroom she remembers nothing from the savage "wilding" attack that nearly killed her.
The woman, a jagged scar running from her left eyebrow down her cheek, spoke in a firm, clear voice when recalling how the ordeal left her with lasting injuries, including trouble walking, double vision and a total loss of smell.
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McMartin trial ends, its effects linger
July 30, 1990
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LOS ANGELES - The child-abuse case that took seven years, cost taxpayers more than $20 million and deadlocked two juries is over.
Maybe.
The McMartin Pre-School molestation case will end this week when the last charges against remaining defendant Ray Buckey are dismissed.
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The Marior Barry trial; A city divided; Conflicting portrait: Hero or hypocrite?
July 26, 1990
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WASHINGTON - This city doesn't trust itself.
The drug and perjury trial of Mayor Marion Barry, expected to go to the jury next week, has produced a tide of passionate feeling - resentment and support - toward Barry and the prosecutors.
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Questions linger for D.C. mayor
Aug. 13, 1990
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WASHINGTON - The jury has spoken - but legal and political question marks still hover over D.C. Mayor Marion Barry.
Barry, whose 10-week drug and perjury trial ended Friday with a mistrial on 12 of 14 counts, is said by friends to be close to declaring an independent run for the City Council.
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Dinkins: Jogger healed, so can we
Aug. 20, 1990
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NEW YORK - Mayor David Dinkins Sunday urged New Yorkers to put the Central Park jogger case behind them and strive for racial harmony.
"The jury has completed its work," Dinkins said a day after three black defendants were convicted of raping and assaulting the jogger, a white investment banker.
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Noriega, U.S. legal system on trial
Sept. 4, 1991
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Days after a federal grand jury in Miami indicted him in 1988, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega addressed a throng of supporters at a Panama City rally, brandishing a machete to underscore his defiance of "the colossus of the North."
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Iran-contra; Reagan-era scandal takes center stage; Freeing North hinged on immunity
Sept. 17, 1991
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Gone is the Marine uniform, cinched at the waist and pinned with six rows of ribbons. But the gap-tooth grin and the righteous confidence remain.
Oliver North, who came to personify the Iran-contra arms scandal, said he was "exonerated" Monday. "Totally ... fully, completely."
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North now free to concentrate on fame, fortune
Sept. 17, 1991
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Thanks to the same famous televised hearings that helped rid him of his Iran-contra convictions Monday, Oliver North has gone from secret government operative to high-priced lecturer, businessman and lobbyist.
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'Obscenity' on trial today; Cincinnati gallery defends artistic freedom; Case could reverberate across USA
Sept. 24, 1990
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Dennis Barrie, director of Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center, sits alone at the defendant's table today when he and the gallery go on trial for obscenity.
But beside him in spirit are an army of artists, museum officials and arts advocates who think the case against him - the first time a gallery has been indicted on obscenity charges - is a landmark assault on artistic freedom.
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2 Live Crew is obscene, jury rules
Oct. 4, 1990
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Selling rap group 2 Live Crew's album, As Nasty As They Wanna Be, violates obscenity laws, a Florida jury ruled Wednesday.
"It's the first time in (U.S.) musical history that a piece of work has been found to be obscene," said Trish Heimers of the Recording Industry Association of America. Reaction: - "It's unfair," screamed Charles Freeman, the black vendor who faces one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. "The jury was all white. ... They don't know a thing about the ghetto!" - "Rape is not a black artistic event," said lawyer Jack Thompson, a 2 Live Crew foe, "and the First Amendment is not a sales receipt to traffic in obscenity to children."
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Judge OKs Exxon settlement
Oct. 9, 1991
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A federal judge in Anchorage Tuesday ended a 2 1/2-year battle over damages from the Exxon Valdez oil spill and accepted a $1.02 billion criminal and civil settlement.
Exxon Corp. and a shipping subsidiary pleaded guilty to misdemeanor environmental violations. They'll pay $125 million in criminal fines plus $900 million in civil penalties.
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Iran-contra probe alive; ex-CIA official indicted
Nov. 27, 1991
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The CIA was drawn more deeply into the Iran-contra scandal Tuesday with the federal indictment of a famed career officer.
A federal grand jury indicted Duane "Dewey" Clarridge, 59, on seven felony counts of perjury and making false statements.
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Smith has 'faith' in system; Jury votes to acquit in just 77 minutes
Dec. 12, 1991
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Jurors in the most celebrated rape case in U.S. history took 77 minutes Wednesday to return a not guilty verdict for William Kennedy Smith.
Smith grinned, jumped from his seat and embraced his lawyer, Roy Black. In the jury box, foreman Thomas Stearns Jr., 62, began to weep. Another juror, Lea Haller, 37, had tears streaming down her face.
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Acquittal in Kahane case angers many
Dec. 23, 1991
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Jewish groups outraged by the acquittal of an Egyptian-born Muslim in the death of radical Rabbi Meir Kahane blasted the U.S. justice system Sunday and vowed to pursue civil rights charges against the man.
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The verdict: 'Sad case' but encouraging
Feb. 12, 1992
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Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson returned to an Indianapolis courtroom Tuesday a convicted felon.
The 18-year-old woman, who Tyson was convicted of raping, headed home to Rhode Island.
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Dahmer: 936 years for 'holocaust'
Feb. 18, 1992
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MILWAUKEE - A subdued Jeffrey Dahmer - sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms in prison - told a hushed court Monday he hopes God has forgiven him because "I know society never will."
Dahmer, 31, a former chocolate factory worker judged sane two days ago in the grisly murders of 15 people, spoke for the first time in open court.
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Dahmer sentencing explodes in emotion
Feb. 18, 1992
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MILWAUKEE - A thick pane of plexiglass separated them for 21 days from the man who slaughtered their sons, brothers and nephews.
But, Monday, not even the bulletproof wall could shield serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer from the rage and sorrow that built up during his sanity trial.
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Noriega lawyers skirt Bush angle
Feb. 20, 1992
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Gen. Manuel Noriega's defense lawyers Wednesday passed up perhaps their best chance to embarrass President George Bush.
Retired admiral Daniel Murphy, former chief of staff to then-vice president Bush in the early 1980s and the day's key witness, wasn't questioned about his ex-boss's controversial relationship with Noriega.
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Tapes of Gotti keep jury riveted
Feb. 21, 1992
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NEW YORK - Add "Marathon Mouth" to the list of nicknames for reputed mob boss John Gotti.
At his racketeering trial on Thursday, Gotti, 51 - taped by an FBI bug hidden in the inner sanctum of his Manhattan hangout - was heard brooding endlessly about rubouts, labor racketeering, his own selflessness and the future of the Gambino crime family.
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Jury deciding fate of Virginia 'Sperm Doctor'
Feb. 27, 1992
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ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The fate of infertility doctor Cecil Jacobson, the self-described "baby-maker" who admits he artificially inseminated patients using his own sperm, goes to a federal jury today.
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Va. doctor guilty in fertility fraud
March 5, 1992
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"Sperm doctor" Cecil Jacobson, accused of secretly fathering as many as 75 of his patients' children through artificial insemination, was convicted Wednesday on 52 counts of fraud and perjury.
He faces up to 280 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.
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Tyson gets 6 years for rape; 'I didn't hurt anybody'; Judge: 'We're looking at two Mike Tysons'
March 27, 1992
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INDIANAPOLIS - On the day Michael Gerald Tyson was sentenced to 10 years in prison for rape and deviate sexual conduct, the sometimes brooding, other times giddy ex-heavyweight champion revealed glimpses of why he remains a baffling paradox.
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Murder sticks to 'Teflon Don'; Jury convicts N.Y. mob boss; 'Fight's not over,' says glitzy Gotti
Apr. 3, 1992
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NEW YORK - John Gotti, the most notorious gangster since Al Capone, lost it all Thursday when a jury convicted him of murdering his way to the top of the nation's most powerful crime family.
No more millions in cash kickbacks. No more $1,800 suits. No more white Mercedes. No more meals at New York's finest eateries. No more fawning media.
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Bush calls Noriega conviction 'victory against drug lords'
Apr. 10, 1992
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MIAMI - The historic racketeering trial of Gen. Manuel Noriega ended Thursday with a resounding conviction: guilty on eight of 10 drug charges.
President Bush, who launched a 1989 invasion of Panama to topple the self-described "Maximum Leader," hailed the verdict as "a major victory against the drug lords."
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Leona going directly to jail
Apr. 15, 1992
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NEW YORK - Hotel queen Leona Helmsley, who once said "only the little people pay taxes," begins a four-year prison term today - tax day - for tax evasion.
A federal appeals court rejected a plea to let Helmsley, 71, perform community service instead of serving time at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Ky.
