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Watergate figures back in court
17/01/2001 08:35 - (SA)
Watergate figures back in court
Baltimore - A defamation suit went to trial that could reopen the Watergate scandal and bring some of its major figures back into court.
The lawsuit was brought by a former secretary for the Democratic National Committee, or DNC. She is seeking $5.1 million from G Gordon Liddy for claiming that the burglars who broke into DNC headquarters at the Watergate complex were looking for photographs that could link the future wife of President Richard Nixon's lawyer John Dean to a call-girl ring.
The former secretary, Ida "Maxie" Wells, says Liddy falsely accused her of procuring prostitutes for the DNC in the early 1970s.
Dean, who was Nixon's chief White House lawyer, said he would testify and deny the accusations. His wife, Maureen, also is listed as a possible witness for Wells. Other potential witnesses listed
by both sides include Watergate figures E Howard Hunt, Charles
Colson and James McCord.
Jury selection began on Tuesday.
"This is the first time, frankly, that the purpose of the break-in will be litigated in court," said Liddy attorney John B Williams.
Williams said on Tuesday that the conservative talk-show host is not liable for defamation because what his client has said is true.
"We're simply saying the conventional theory (of Watergate) is not correct and there's good reason to endorse an alternate theory and that's what the case is about," Williams said.
Liddy arranged the 17 June 1972, burglary that ultimately led to Nixon's 1974 resignation. Liddy served four years and four months in prison and now is a conservative radio talk-show host.
Dean co-operated with Watergate prosecutors and served four months in prison. He has recently worked as an investment banker in Beverly Hills.
The lawsuit contends Liddy has repeatedly, and falsely, claimed that the break-in at DNC headquarters in the Watergate office complex was ordered not to repair a previously installed telephone tap but to recover photos and phone numbers of Dean's fiancee. According to the lawsuit, Liddy says Dean's fiancee was a member of a call-girl ring.
Dean said on Tuesday that he plans to testify next week on Wells' behalf and denied being the Watergate mastermind.
"There is not a scintilla of evidence that there was a call-girl
ring at the DNC," he said.
Attorneys for Wells, who later served as secretary to President Jimmy Carter, have also sought to discredit the call-girl ring
theory.
The lawsuit says Liddy claims Wells "kept photographs of
prostitutes in her desk at the DNC; showed them to visitors to the
DNC; and then placed phone calls to the call-girl ring to arrange
the meeting between the visitors and the prostitutes".
Wells' lawyer, David M Dorsen, notes that she later became personal secretary to President Carter.
"It defies belief that if there were an active prostitution ring
operating out of the DNC in 1971-1972, in which (Wells) played a
conspicuous role, no Democratic worker or official came forward to
protect President Carter from the political scandal of having as
his secretary an alleged former madam, who supposedly pimped for
countless Democratic bigwigs," Dorsen said in court papers.
At a hearing last week, Chief Judge J Frederick Motz said lawyers on both sides might want to "shake hands, and say this is a
wonderful piece of history that ought to stay that way".
Liddy attorney Kerri Hook said that is not likely.
"The word ?ttle' is not in Gordon's vocabulary," Hook said last week.
The lawsuit was filed in 1997. Motz ruled in 1998 that Wells was a public figure, which required her to prove Liddy acted with "actual malice". She was unable to meet that high standard and Motz threw out the lawsuit. However, a federal appeals court reinstated the
lawsuit.
Liddy began talking about Wells in speeches after Dean sued Liddy and the authors of a 1991 book, "Silent Coup", over its claim that Dean instigated the Watergate break-in. Dean dropped his case against Liddy last summer.
- SAPA
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