JUDGE DROPS DRUG CHARGE, LASHES FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY

Says Prejudicial Comments Made To Press Tainted Jury

In withering remarks from the bench, a federal judge dropped a major drug
charge after concluding that the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco
made prejudicial comments about the infamous case to the press.

U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush ruled Tuesday that former U.S.
Attorney Michael Yamaguchi engaged in "reckless disregard" for the
constitutional rights of alleged cocaine kingpin Anthony "Ant" Flowers.

The senior judge said Yamaguchi violated both professional rules and his
admonition not to discuss the 1996 prosecution. The former prosecutor, he
said, had commented on the case and re-released an earlier press release on
it, which, the judge said, was a shocking "parade of horribles."

On that ground, Quackenbush dismissed the heaviest charge against Flowers:
operating a "continuing criminal enterprise" - that is, supervising an
illegal drug ring - that carried a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years
in prison.

The U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on the ruling, as did
Yamaguchi's lawyer, Jerrold Ladar.

Maureen Kallins, Flowers' lawyer, said the judge's action was "brave and
honest . . . and hopefully a message will go out to prosecutors that they
have to play by the rules."

The ruling was the latest turn in a troubled case that has been cited as
one of the reasons Yamaguchi did not receive a federal judgeship and
resigned as U.S. attorney effective Monday. His successor, Robert S.
Mueller III, appeared at the hearing.

In taking what he said was unusual action, the senior judge, visiting from
Seattle, exercised his supervisory powers over court conduct.

He noted that in the first part of trial, he had instructed Yamaguchi to
make no further public comment on the case. The prosecutor had told a
reporter that though his office brought fewer cases than did other
districts, they were more serious, and cited the Flowers case.

At the end of part one in December 1996, Flowers was convicted of
conspiracy to distribute more than 11 pounds of cocaine in Oakland. Four
other men also were convicted.

At this point - before the jury began part two of the trial, on the
continuing criminal enterprise charge - Yamaguchi faxed to three reporters
a summary of the verdict in phase one and a copy of a press release issued
more than two years earlier when Flowers was first charged in the case. The
release said a street gang run by Flowers was in "a bloody war" with rival
drug gangs.

But the judge found Tuesday that evidence of that had not been admitted at
trial. And, Kallins said, "My client has never been charged with violence
in his life."

This - along with Yamaguchi's comment to a reporter that the crackdown on
Flower's gang was partly responsible for a "big drop" in Oakland's homicide
rate - tainted the jury, the judge said.

A juror read one of the resulting news stories and phoned the judge, who
then questioned the jurors and found that some had engaged in misconduct by
reading or discussing news accounts.

On that basis, he last year reversed the convictions from part one of the
trial. The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reinstated them, though
further appeals by Flowers's lawyer are pending. On Tuesday the judge
separately dismissed charges of running a criminal enterprise, money
laundering and possessing illegal profits. And he criticized the U.S.
attorney's office for not having admitted its errors earlier.

1998 San Francisco Examiner