DID FEDS TRY TO SET UP PATRICIA HEARST SHAW ON DRUG CHARGE?

Patricia Hearst Shaw, the newspaper heiress who was kidnapped in 1974 and
convicted of robbing a bank with her captors, claims federal drug agents may
have tried to set her up.

Hearst Shaw, who spent two years in jail for a robbery she said she was
forced to commit, tells the June 15 edition of The New Yorker that the setup
may have to do with her request for a presidential pardon.

Her lawyer said someone may have been trying to discredit her and ruin her
chances at a pardon. He has asked Attorney General Janet Reno to look into
the matter.

``We're not ruling anything in and we're not ruling anything out,'' George
Martinez told The Associated Press when asked if he believed the government
was involved in the incident. ``We just don't know what's going on.''

In February, a package was delivered to her Connecticut home by United
Parcel Service. Thinking the package might be a bomb, she refused to open it
and called police.

``I always look my mail over because of having spent 18 months with
terrorists who thought up things like this,'' she told The New Yorker.
``They would sit around and dream up ways to kill people.''

Minutes later a truck pulled up that she assumed was part of a bomb squad. A
man and a woman came to her door and flashed badges identifying themselves
as federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

The agents said they did not know who sent the package, which they said
contained narcotics, but were prepared to arrest Hearst Shaw for accepting
them. They said they were tipped off to the delivery.

However, since Hearst Shaw did not take the box into her home and contacted
police right away, she had done ``everything right,'' according to the
agents.

The agents asked if she knew of any reason why someone would send her drugs.
She claimed someone may have been trying to hurt her chance at a pardon,
which had come up for consideration by the Justice Department two weeks
beforehand.

While Martinez would not say whom he suspected, he wrote Reno that the DEA
had begun a ``campaign of harassment'' against Hearst Shaw and asked whether
the government was trying to trap her.

``Has the DEA or the DOJ (Department of Justice) been involved in devising
or manufacturing evidence to inculpate Ms. Hearst and Mr. Shaw?'' the letter
said.

The Justice Department has promised a ``detailed and expeditious'' response
to his letter, Martinez said.

Federal authorities declined to comment. A call late Monday to the DEA
office in Washington was not returned. The Justice Department said no one
was available for comment.

Hearst Shaw said she still has flashbacks from the time she spent with the
Symbionese Liberation Army. Her prison term was commuted by President Jimmy
Carter, but she is hoping to clear her name with a pardon. A0

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett