The Nation - News from July 12, 1989

William Dredge, a reputed associate of Florida underworld figures, told a committee of senators at a closed-door hearing how he helped federal investigators stalk federal Judge Alcee L. Hastings in a bribery conspiracy case. Hastings, a U.S. District judge from Miami, is accused of plotting to get a $150,000 payoff, of lying about it to a jury that acquitted him in 1983 and of improperly disclosing information obtained through a federal wiretap. Hastings, the first black federal judge in Florida, was impeached by the House a year ago and is now on trial in the Senate, which could remove him from the bench. Meanwhile, Hastings lost a bid in the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the impeachment trial.