EDWARDS WANTS TO SEE POLOZOLA MEDICAL RECORDS

Attorneys for former Gov. Edwin Edwards are asking a Baton Rouge state
judge to let them see the medical records of U.S. District Judge Frank
Polozola. A motion filed Tuesday seeks depositions the federal judge, his
psychiatrist and his psychologist gave in a 1998 civil lawsuit.

State District Judge Janice Clark, who presided over Polozola's case, has
scheduled a hearing for April 19. The case was settled in 2001.

The documents are expected to provide insight into Polozola's physical and
mental state during Edwards' extortion trial.

The former governor's attorneys want the records to help make their case in
federal court that Edwards' conviction should be tossed because pain pills
made Polozola "erratic, even paranoid."

They've also requested that Polozola not be allowed to make the decision
about vacating the verdict.

Polozola was involved in an accident on Interstate 10 in March 1997. He
filed a civil suit in September of that year, claiming his back and left
shoulder were injured in the wreck, and that he suffered "mental anguish"
and "impairment of function."

Records filed in the case indicate the judge filled OxyContin prescriptions
in the spring and summer of 1999 -- around the time of pretrial hearings in
the case against Edwards and his son, Stephen.

Judge Clark sealed the testimony of Polozola, Dr. Mark Zielinski and Ann
Bottimore at Polozola's request. The defendants in the case did not object.

The depositions "contain critical information bearing directly on" the
Edwardses' claim, attorney Mike Small wrote in the motion seeking to
intervene in the state civil suit.

"Their rights were violated by Judge Polozola's decision to specifically
assign their cases to himself," Small wrote, "and to preside over the cases
at a time when he was 'impaired in function' and taking narcotic
painkillers, including OxyContin, to alleviate his pain and suffering."

Small did not return a call to his Alexandria office Tuesday afternoon
seeking comment.

A jury in May 2000 convicted Edwards, his son, Stephen, and three other men
of extorting riverboat casino license applicants.

The 76-year-old Edwards is serving a 10-year sentence at a federal prison
in Fort Worth, Texas.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap-peals upheld the conviction, and the
Supreme Court declined to review the case.

Polozola has said he does not comment on pending cases. Edward J. Walters
Jr. of Baton Rouge, who represented the judge in the civil suit, did not
return a call to his office Tuesday.

In a motion filed in the federal case Monday, prosecutors dubbed the
allegations about Polozola's use of prescription narcotics "slanderous" and
"ugly."

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten of New Orleans said Tuesday he hasn't read the
latest motion and doesn't want to comment on matters pending before a
federal court. "We'll be speaking loudly and plainly enough through our
pleadings," Letten said.