North Guilty on 3 Counts : Ex-Marine at Center of Iran-Contra Affair Faces 10 Yrs. : Shows No Emotion at Jury Ruling

Oliver L. North, the former White House aide once praised by President Ronald Reagan as “a true American hero,” was convicted today of three felony crimes arising from the Iran-Contra scandal. He was found innocent of nine other counts.

The jury of nine women and three men found North guilty of one count of helping to obstruct Congress in its efforts to learn about Iran-Contra operations, one count of shredding official U.S. documents sought by investigators and one count of personal financial misconduct in accepting the gratuity of a $14,000 home security fence.

He faces up to 10 years in jail and $750,000 in fines.

Acquitted Counts

North was acquitted of three counts of lying to Congress, three counts of obstructing Congress and one count each of lying to the attorney general, converting more than $4,300 in traveler’s checks to his own use and tax fraud.

The case centered on North’s efforts, as a Reagan National Security Council aide, to keep guns and money flowing to the Nicaraguan rebels at a time when official U.S. aid was banned in 1985 and 1986.

North accepted the verdict without any show of emotion, but a congressman described him as “absolutely elated” at the jury’s decision.

After the judge and jury had left the room, North walked to a railing separating him from his wife, Betsy, and kissed her lightly on the cheek.

North left the courthouse with his wife and his lawyer. They made no comments to the crowd of reporters and onlookers.

“The principle that no man is above the law has been vindicated,” said prosecutor John W. Keker, who refused to answer reporters’ questions.

‘Jury Has Spoken’

Keker, in a brief statement on the courthouse steps, told reporters, “Some said the system of justice could not deal effectively with this case. Some even said it could not be tried. Col. North has been convicted of three very serious charges. The jury has spoken.”

Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), who was one of North’s chief defenders in the congressional Iran-Contra hearings two years ago, was in the courtroom for the verdict. Afterward, he walked up to North at the defense table and shook his hand. North smiled broadly.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R- Lomita) described North as “absolutely elated.”

“We gave each other thumbs up,” said Rohrabacher, a former White House aide for whom North campaigned last year. He said the jury found North guilty “of only cutting corners and not breaking the law.”

North, a Marine lieutenant colonel detailed to the National Security Council, was the key figure in the two-year effort to help the rebels fighting Nicaragua’s leftist government after Congress banned official U.S. aid.

He was also involved in arrangements under which the United States secretly sold arms to Iran, and he also helped divert some profits from those sales to help the Contras.

Public disclosure of the affair in November, 1986, began the worst crisis of Reagan’s eight-year presidency, a public furor that did not subside until after televised congressional hearings that made North a national figure.

The jury found that North falsified and destroyed documents in November, 1986, as the affair was about to become public and that he accepted an illegal gratuity--a $13,800 home security system--from Iran-Contra co-defendant Richard V. Secord.

North was also convicted of aiding and abetting in obstruction of Congress by falsifying a chronology of events in the affair. The false chronology stated that no one in the U.S. government knew until January, 1986, that a CIA-assisted shipment from Israel to Iran in November, 1985, contained Hawk missiles.

Authorization Claimed

Both in the congressional hearings in 1987 and during his three-month trial, North’s defense had been that he had authorization for everything he did from two successive bosses, National Security Advisers Robert F. McFarlane and John M. Poindexter, and “concurrence” from the late CIA Director William J. Casey.

He said he assumed that Reagan--who spoke out often in support of the Contra cause--also knew of his efforts and approved them. Reagan told the investigative Tower Commission two years ago that he did not know of his NSC staff’s efforts to help the Contras.

Reagan fired North the day the affair became public but telephoned him the same day and told him he was a hero.

The jury was instructed by Judge Gerhard A. Gesell that “neither the President nor any of the defendant’s superiors had the legal authority to order anyone to violate the law.”