MARLENE COOKE REPRIEVED DURING DEPORTATION FIGHT

Marlene Ramallo Cooke, widow of Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke,
can remain in the United States for at least four more months while her
attorneys keep fighting the Justice Department over plans to deport her.

Cooke and her attorneys appeared in U.S. District Court in Washington
yesterday to argue that U.S. immigration authorities have no legal right to
return her to her native Bolivia. Government lawyers argued otherwise and
urged Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to dismiss her lawsuit immediately.

Sullivan, however, said he was not inclined to reject Cooke's claim so
quickly. He ordered attorneys on both sides to submit briefs during the
summer. A follow-up hearing is scheduled for Oct. 1. Meanwhile, Cooke can
stay in the country.

Cooke, who gained prominence during her sometimes tumultuous marriage to
Jack Kent Cooke, declined comment on her latest legal strategy, as did one
of her attorneys, Lynda Schuler.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service wants to deport Cooke, citing her
1986 guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Because
she was not a U.S. citizen, the conviction subjected her to deportation
procedures. Cooke contends that the government promised in 1988 not to
deport her in return for her help in narcotics investigations. Both sides
agreed that Cooke's cooperation helped lock up major drug dealers.

But in court yesterday, the Justice Department's Mary Jane Candaux said
Cooke was supposed to remain in the United States only until the drug
investigations were completed. Once that was over, in 1992, the INS acted to
deport her. If anyone from the Drug Enforcement Administration made promises
beyond that, Candaux said, they were "contrary to law" and not binding.

The two sides have gone back and forth over the issue in previous court
proceedings. Cooke earlier filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court contending
that she had a "contract" to stay in the United States. A federal judge
ruled in her favor in 1996, but the decision was reversed by the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The Supreme Court declined in March to
hear that case.

Cooke and the INS also are fighting before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in Richmond over administrative procedures used by the INS in its
efforts to deport her. Candaux contended that the Richmond court is the
proper forum for Cooke's legal challenges and accused her of "shopping"
around for a favorable decision.

The latest Washington lawsuit, filed in March, alleges that deportation
would be an extreme violation of Cooke's constitutional rights to due
process. Cooke's attorneys contend that she has no chance of survival if
returned to Bolivia because of her cooperation in the drug investigations.