THREE EXCUSED FROM STAND : REWALD DEFENSE SUFFERS SETBACKS

Fearing possible future criminal charges, three key sources for early news reports of the Ronald R. Rewald-CIA affair will not testify in the swindling suspect’s trial, defense attorneys acknowledged in federal court here last week.

News coverage of the Rewald case became a major issue late last year when the CIA took the unprecedented step of complaining to the Federal Communications Commission about ABC’s two-part reporting of the story. ABC charged that the agency used Rewald’s firm as a cover for illegal activities throughout Asia and the Pacific. The CIA, in turn, charged that the network deliberately distorted its reporting and violated the commission’s fairness doctrine.

Excused from taking the stand were former Rewald associate Robert W. Jinks and Sue E. Wilson, former office manager of his bankrupt investment firm.

In a similar blow to the defense case, Rewald’s attorneys admitted that a former employee of Rewald’s firm may have perjured herself in a grand jury investigation of the alleged swindle.

Testimony in the trial, just concluding its ninth week, could finish as early as Friday. Still scheduled to testify are at least three former CIA officers and Rewald.

Rewald, 43, is on trial in federal court on 98 counts of fraud, tax evasion and perjury arising out of the August, 1983, collapse of his Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham & Wong investment firm. He is charged with bilking nearly 400 persons out of about $22 million. If convicted, he faces as much as 40 years in prison, according to government attorneys.

In its original complaint, the CIA asked the FCC to revoke ABC’s licenses to broadcast. That was the first such complaint ever brought by a government agency against a TV broadcaster.

The FCC, in July, denied the CIA complaint but ruled that government agencies may bring such actions in the future. That decision is expected to spawn a number of legal actions.

ABC built its broadcasts in part around Robert W. Jinks’ claim that he participated in a CIA-inspired effort to destabilize the economy of the British colony of Hong Kong.

Jinks, a former Napa County attorney, made similar comments in CBS News and British Broadcasting Corp. versions of the Rewald story broadcast before ABC.

With the defense team’s decision not to insist on Jinks’ testimony, however, his--and ABC’s--claim appears unlikely to be substantiated during Rewald’s criminal trial.

According to federal public defender Michael Levine, Jinks informed the defense team that he would invoke his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination if called to testify. The defense promptly excluded Jinks from its witness list.

Like Jinks, Wilson previously had supported Rewald’s claims of extensive ties to the CIA in TV news investigations of his story. Unlike Jinks, however, Wilson appeared on only a local TV documentary that provided some foundation for national news reports of the episode.

The third excluded witness, former Bishop Baldwin secretary Jacqueline Vos, did not appear in any TV report of the story.

According to defense attorney Wayne Parsons, Vos admitted to lying to a federal grand jury that investigated the Rewald affair.

Two other TV sources were put on the stand: Calvin Gunderson, Rewald’s former bodyguard, and Franklin Kipilii, Rewald’s former chauffeur. Gunderson appeared in the same local broadcast as did Sue Wilson, while Kipilii was quoted on air by CBS News.