Ruling Favors FBI Agent in Presser Case

A federal judge Thursday threw out key evidence against a former FBI agent who was indicted on charges of lying to federal officials during their probe of Teamsters President Jackie Presser.

But the ruling had no immediate impact on prosecution of the Teamsters president, whose trial is expected to begin next spring.

Admission to Prosecutors

U.S. District Judge George H. Revercomb, climaxing a three-day hearing, ruled that government prosecutors improperly obtained self-incriminating statements from ex-agent Robert S. Friedrick.

Friedrick told the prosecutors earlier this year that he had lied when he said the FBI had authorized Presser to hire “ghost employees” at a Teamsters local as part of an effort to further Presser’s role as an informant for the bureau.

As a result of Friedrick’s admission, the Justice Department last May obtained an indictment of Friedrick for making false statements. The prosecutors also pressed charges against Presser and two union associates for allegedly misspending $700,000 in Teamsters Union dues to pay mob-related “employees” who performed no work for Presser’s hometown union.

John R. Climaco, Presser’s defense attorney, raised the “authorization” argument on Presser’s behalf in 1985, when the Justice Department was first considering pressing charges against the Teamsters chief.

Justice Department investigators promptly questioned Friedrick about it, as well as two agents who had preceded Friedrick as Presser’s handler in Cleveland. Friedrick and the others--Martin P. McCann Jr., now retired, and Patrick Foran, now assistant agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas office--supported Climaco’s claim.

The statements of McCann and Foran are still being investigated by prosecutors.

In throwing out the self-incriminating statements of Friedrick, Revercomb said there was evidence that Friedrick believed he had been given limited immunity from prosecution by Justice Department lawyers, who months earlier had told him he would not be charged with any crime if he told them the truth.

“I do believe he was misled,” the judge said.

Case May Be Dead

James I. Knapp, deputy associate attorney general, said, “We are strongly disappointed at the ruling and will consider an appeal.”

Other department sources said the case against Friedrick is effectively dead--unless Revercomb’s ruling is reversed.

However, prosecutors still are free to call Friedrick as a government witness against Presser if the Teamsters leader--as expected--claims at his trial next year that the FBI authorized his actions.

“I think we have won our case,” William D. Beyer, Friedrick’s lawyer, told reporters after the decision.

Friedrick, 43, was fired last August by FBI director William H. Webster, who said his dismissal was for administrative reasons and not because of the criminal charges. An FBI spokesman said Thursday that “there is no reason to believe that the court ruling will change Friedrick’s status” as a dismissed agent.