Judge Orders Presser to Answer Crime Panel’s Queries

A federal judge has ordered Teamsters Union President Jackie Presser to answer questions from the President’s Organized Crime Commission on bribes, kickbacks, manipulation of union funds by organized crime and violence against dissident union members, court files disclosed Friday.

After U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell rejected attempts by Presser’s lawyer to quash the commission subpoena, Presser appeared before commission lawyers March 26, sources familiar with the matter said.

But it could not be determined whether he answered any questions, continued to invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination or merely read a statement to the panel lawyers. Court files on the matter, which were unsealed Friday, gave no indication of the outcome.

Hearings This Month

The sources indicated that attempts to obtain information from Presser are continuing and that they could come to a head when the commission holds hearings on labor racketeering in Chicago later this month. However, it was not certain whether the commission would seek Presser’s public testimony.

The matter is particularly sensitive now because of a recommendation by federal prosecutors in Cleveland that a grand jury there be asked to indict Presser on charges of defrauding his hometown union local.

The recommendation is working its way up in the Justice Department’s criminal division, and a source said Friday that David Margolis, chief of the organized crime and racketeering section, had approved the recommendation and forwarded it to Assistant Atty. Gen. Stephen S. Trott.

The case could present a ticklish political problem for President Reagan’s top appointees at the department because Presser has been Reagan’s chief supporter in organized labor.

‘In Consultation’

A Justice Department spokesman said commission lawyers had been “in consultation with us” about seeking Presser’s testimony, “and beyond that we can’t comment.”

But a government source said the commission had agreed not to ask Presser about the central allegation of the proposed charges against him: that he had fraudulently approved payment of more than $250,000 from his Cleveland local’s treasury to “ghost employees” who performed no work for the Teamsters.

Gesell on March 22 denied Presser’s request to quash a subpoena. The commission had granted Presser several extensions and then asked him to appear March 26 in the privacy of its offices, court records show.

Commission deputy counsel Steven M. Ryan wrote in a letter to Presser’s lawyers that interviewing Presser “could take as long as two to three days.”

Questions on Crime

According to court records, Ryan told John R. Climaco, Presser’s lawyer, that his client would “at a minimum” be questioned about:

--Organized crime. “Two of Mr. Presser’s last three predecessors were convicted and removed from office. The commission is interested in Mr. Presser’s evaluation of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ plans for discovering and dealing with abuses caused by the infiltration by organized crime and the IBT’s response to evidence of racketeering influence,” Ryan wrote.

--The use of violence against dissident Teamster members.

--Benefit funds. “The lengthy investigation of the Central States Pension Fund and other IBT benefit funds demonstrates a past history of organized crime influence,” Ryan wrote.

--”The payment of bribes, kickbacks and other illegal payments to IBT officials and the manner in which IBT officials conduct themselves generally.”