U.S. Wins Delay in Media Bid to See Probe Data

A U.S. magistrate declared on Friday that the public had a right of access to certain government documents filed in Los Angeles in the unfolding Pentagon fraud scandal, but federal prosecutors won a delay in the release of the documents until at least next week.

At issue are search warrants and affidavits filed by the government in connection with FBI searches last month at offices of three Southern California defense contractors and the home of a defense consultant. Those papers were sealed last month at the request of the government.

After Magistrate Joseph Reichmann ruled on Friday morning that the documents could be unsealed, federal prosecutors appealed the decision to U.S. District Judge David Kenyon in Los Angeles. He ordered that the documents remain sealed until after two hearings next week.

May Release Some Data

Kenyon said he would consider releasing limited information on Monday, but he ordered attorneys for the media, the government and other interested parties to submit papers and be prepared to present arguments next Friday on whether the rest of the documents should be released.

The judge said he wanted to give targets of the Justice Department inquiry more time to fight disclosure of the affidavits.

A private attorney who sided with the government made a surprise appearance before Kenyon but would not disclose whom he was representing. The lawyer, George L. O’Connell of Los Angeles, a former federal prosecutor here, would say only that his client--”Mr. X”--was employed by one of the California firms served with a search warrant.

Another twist was added when Magistrate Reichmann disclosed that one of the sealed affidavits “has been misplaced,” adding, however: “I don’t see anything sinister about it.”

That disclosure surprised the U.S. District Court’s records supervisor, Debra Hirshberg, who said Friday afternoon that she “was not informed that anything was missing. Since no one has told me anything was missing, nothing is missing.”

‘Secrets Are Multiplying’

After the proceedings, a frustrated attorney, Rex S. Heinke of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, the law firm representing The Times in its attempt to unseal the documents, said: “The whole thing is disturbing. Secrets are multiplying in every direction. We have secret search warrants, secret affidavits and unknown (defendants).”

At issue was a motion by The Times, Copley Newspapers and the National Broadcasting Co. to unseal government papers that could further disclose the nature and extent of the massive Pentagon procurement fraud scandal.

The motion seeks access to search warrants and supporting affidavits served last month on Woodland Hills aerospace consultant Fred H. Lackner and on Teledyne Inc.’s electronics unit and a Northrop Corp. unit, both in Newbury Park, and Litton Industries Inc.’s Data Systems subsidiary in Van Nuys.

In urging disclosure of the contents of the affidavits, The Times argued that the public had a “right of access to judicial records” that is “firmly rooted in the common law, the U.S. Constitution” and statutory law.

Documents Destroyed

But, in papers filed by government prosecutor Joseph J. Aronica, it was argued that the Justice Department had “a serious concern” that key documents not yet in investigators’ hands could be destroyed. Indeed, Aronica argued, “two incidents of document destruction by persons implicated in the investigation” already had taken place.

In arguing for the government, U.S. Attorney Robert Bonner said that the public’s right of access, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, is “by no means absolute.”

Furthermore, Bonner told Magistrate Reichmann, premature disclosure of the affidavits could damage the reputations of individuals who may never be indicted.

Bonner ascribed news organizations’ motivation for obtaining disclosure of the affidavits to “a frenzy to get this story out.”

In the afternoon hearing, Bonner told Judge Kenyon that, during the course of the day, federal judges in three other jurisdictions--Minneapolis, Brooklyn, N. Y., and Alexandria, Va.--had rejected efforts to unseal affidavits concerning the investigation.

During the hearings Friday, lawyers for news organizations declared that, because the government affidavits had been filed a month ago, targets of the investigation had been given sufficient warning and no purpose would be served by more delays.

Breaking ‘New Ground’

“The government is trying to break new ground--to conduct a search and then not tell the public about it until years thereafter,” Harold W. Fuson Jr., representing Copley newspapers, argued.

Reichmann sat in silence through the hourlong debate and then declared, almost introspectively, that the work of a magistrate, unlike a federal judge, is mostly routine until a case such as the Pentagon one comes along. “I often wonder whether it’s worth it,” he asserted.

Having said that, however, Reichmann launched into a lecture on the public’s right to know what is in the affidavits.

The key question as far as informed members of the public is concerned, he said, was: “What do they have the right to know and when do they have the right to know it?”

The public, Reichmann concluded, had a fundamental and constitutional right to know what was in the affidavits. “We’re talking about the right of the public to know about this, and that’s where it’s at,” he said.