Halt Inquiry on Impeachment, Judge Demands

U.S. Judge Alcee L. Hastings of Miami told House investigators today, “I am not guilty but I am not free,” and demanded that they drop impeachment proceedings and clear his name of misconduct charges brought by fellow judges.

Hastings said he was the first federal judge in U.S. history to be threatened with impeachment after his acquittal of criminal charges at a jury trial.

“They found me not guilty of crimes I never committed,” Hastings told the House Judiciary subcommittee on criminal justice, which opened impeachment hearings today.

“Let me make it very, very clear,” he said in sworn testimony. “I did not receive a bribe, I did not obstruct justice, I have not betrayed the integrity of my office. I am not guilty but I am not free.”

‘In the Name of Decency’

Hastings denounced a report by a special five-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals accusing him of lying under oath and manufacturing evidence at his bribery trial in 1983.

“I ask you in the name of decency, I ask you in the name of justice, the American jury system and the American way of life, I beg you, I beseech you--hell no, I demand of you, that you set me free!”

Hastings, the first black federal judge in Florida, was acquitted five years ago of plotting to solicit a $150,000 bribe from two convicted racketeers in exchange for a promise of lenient sentences.

Today’s hearing began with a review of evidence in the case by New York lawyer John M. Doar, a former U.S. assistant attorney general who supervised the appellate panel’s investigation.

3 1/2-Year Investigation

Doar also wrote the panel’s voluminous report accusing Hastings of bribery conspiracy and obstruction of justice after a 3 1/2-year investigation.

The report was given to the House leadership in March, 1987, by the Judicial Conference of the United States, the chief policy-making body of the federal judiciary, with the conclusion that “consideration of impeachment may be warranted.”

At the outset of today’s hearing, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), chairman of the subcommittee that has studied the case for more than a year, said he is deeply troubled that the charges against Hastings might be racially and politically motivated.