The Nation - News from Feb. 9, 1986

A jury in Hattiesburg, Miss., began its deliberations in the influence-peddling and perjury trial of U.S. District Judge Walter L. Nixon Jr. Nixon, the third federal judge to face criminal charges while on the bench, ended his testimony with a vigorous denial that he had ever used his office for financial benefit. He also denied lying to a grand jury. The government accused Nixon, chief judge for Mississippi’s southern district, of accepting $60,000 worth of oil and gas interests from Wiley Fairchild, a wealthy businessman, in exchange for help in trying to get state drug charges dropped against Fairchild’s son, Dew.