RIVERA LITIGANT HELD ON MARIJUANA CHARGE

The Houston-area woman who last month filed a $30-million libel suit against TV reporter Geraldo Rivera after her arrest during a nationally televised drug bust was arrested again Thursday night for allegedly selling marijuana.

Terry G. Rouse, 28, was one of six persons arrested in suburban Channelview, Tex., at the conclusion of what the Harris County Sheriff’s Department called a two-week undercover narcotics investigation. Rouse was charged with two counts of felony delivery of marijuana and one misdemeanor delivery charge.

The arrest was made after a Harris County grand jury handed down sealed indictments Thursday naming nine different persons. All of the suspects were accused of selling marijuana to undercover police officers. Three suspects were reported to be still at large Friday. Rouse was reported to have been in custody at press time Friday in lieu of a $4,500 bond.

Rouse gained national attention after she appeared on Rivera’s Dec. 2 “American Vice: The Doping of a Nation” syndicated television special. In the live broadcast, Rouse was shown being arrested and handcuffed after Rivera said deputies were raiding the Channelview home of an alleged pimp and prostitutes.

She was released two days later after a Houston judge ruled officers had no probable cause to arrest her.

Rouse filed her libel suit Dec. 29 in Houston, denying Rivera’s allegation.

According to her lawyers, Rouse had never before been arrested.

Mary Heafner, an attorney representing Rouse in the criminal case and the libel suit, said Thursday’s arrest was an effort to harass Rouse for filing her libel action. “The first bust was for the media, and this one’s for the lawsuit,” Heafner said. “It’s down and dirty.”

Sheriff’s Department officials said Rouse’s arrest was unrelated to the Dec. 2 incident.

Rouse’s suit named Harris County Sheriff Johnny Klevenhagen and other local officials as well as Rivera and Tribune Entertainment Co. of Chicago, distributor of the program.

She charged in her suit that Rivera and Klevenhagen--who personally participated in the Dec. 2 raid--maliciously used her in a “conspiracy to arrest, imprison, prosecute and defame anyone they found” in order to boost the ratings for the program. The show was entertainment, not news, she and her lawyers said.

Neither Rivera nor Tribune Entertainment has filed a response to the suit, Tribune attorney Charles Sennet said Friday. He also said the company would have no comment about Rouse’s new arrest.

Rivera’s New York office said he was not available Friday, but he issued a statement that critics of the controversial broadcast should face arrest for criticizing his reporting.

Rouse, Rivera said, “is innocent until proven guilty, but all things considered, I would have preferred if they had arrested some well-known television and newspaper critics who blasted our program before they knew the facts.”