New Federal Judge Bars Lawyers in 2 Cases From Speaking to Press

A Los Angeles federal judge--who issued a written gag order last week on attorneys in a civil rights case--on Wednesday blocked lawyers in a cocaine conspiracy trial from speaking to the press.

Both defense lawyers and federal prosecutors said they could not remember any other federal judge in Los Angeles taking similar steps in comparable cases.

U.S. District Judge William D. Keller, a former U.S. attorney appointed to the federal bench by President Reagan four months ago, issued the first gag order last Thursday at the start of a civil rights lawsuit filed by a former police officer against the Signal Hill Police Department.

His second ban came in the form of a verbal admonishment against talking to the press about a cocaine conspiracy trial that opened Wednesday.

While Keller has refused to discuss his policy on gag orders, one attorney, who asked to remain anonymous, said the judge made it clear to lawyers that he intends to issue similar rulings in future cases.

Keller, 49, served five years as U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. He was appointed to that job by President Richard M. Nixon in 1972.

1st Gag Order Challenged

Attorney Stephen Yagman, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, has already challenged Keller’s first gag order in an emergency appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Paul Hoffman, legal director of the ACLU, called Keller’s first gag order a “highly unusual” action for a judge in a civil case, especially in view of the fact that it was not requested by lawyers for either side.

Lucky C. Lucky, a former Signal Hill policeman, is suing the Signal Hill Police Department for $75 million for dismissing him in 1982 after he was involved in a fight with a white police officer. Lucky, who is black, says the firing was racially motivated.

The criminal trial that opened Wednesday involves an alleged conspiracy to distribute 10 kilograms of cocaine by Craig Glazer, Richard Hellman and Ivan Urlich.

Brendan O’Neill, attorney for Glazer, said Keller told attorneys before the start of trial not to “try the case in the press.” O’Neill said he could not recall a similar instruction from any other federal judge and was interpreting the comment as a ban on any discussion of the case.

Reasons for 1st Order

In his earlier written gag order in the Signal Hill case, Keller said that one of his reasons for barring comment on the case was that it was “a potential subject of substantial local interest.”

Challenging that reasoning, Hoffman noted that there were no gag orders issued in many other federal cases that have received far greater public attention, notably the cocaine trial of John Z. DeLorean and recent hearings in the pending cases of accused Soviet spies Richard W. Miller, Svetlana Ogorodnikova and Nikolai Ogorodnikov.