Both Sides Shuffling Legal Teams for Noriega’s Trial

Preparing for the historic criminal trial of a foreign head of state, the government is quietly maneuvering to ease out its self-declared chief prosecutor in the Manuel A. Noriega drug racketeering case, the brilliant but volcanic U.S. attorney in Miami.

Meanwhile, a shake-up appears likely in the ousted dictator’s defense team, with a nationally known defense attorney saying he has been approached about the case and other knowledgeable lawyers predicting a change.

The driving force behind the possible shifts on both sides, attorneys and other officials close to the case said Thursday, is to put in place high-powered, seasoned legal practitioners for a trial that appears likely to make its mark in both history and legal books.

“We’re in the process of putting together the strongest possible prosecution team,” David Runkel, chief spokesman for Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh, said Thursday. He insisted that no decisions have been made and that a “number of options are still under consideration.”

Government sources said Justice Department officials are pressing U.S. Atty. Dexter Lehtinen, a former state legislator who has declared his intention to try the case, to take a lesser role.

“There are discussions going on between here and Dexter Lehtinen’s office,” Runkel acknowledged, declining to elaborate.

At the same time, well-known New York defense lawyer Barry I. Slotnick, who represented subway gunman Bernard Goetz, said he has been approached to take over the Noriega defense from two Miami attorneys, Frank A. Rubino and Steven Kollin.

The office of Richard (Racehorse) Haynes, a prominent defense attorney who is currently representing a woman accused of looting $16 million from an Orange County thrift, said Haynes has received a similar approach, although the report could not be confirmed.

And Neal R. Sonnett, a prominent Miami defense attorney who withdrew as Noriega’s chief legal strategist last week over conflicts with Rubino and Kollin, said he is “leaving the door open” to rejoining a reorganized team.

Other attorneys connected with the case, in which Noriega and 15 others have been indicted on drug-trafficking charges, said they anticipate a change in the former dictator’s defense team.

The unusual pretrial shifting is a sign of the importance of the Noriega case and the complexity of the issues it is likely to raise.

Lehtinen, a Democrat-turned-Republican state legislator, was named U.S. attorney by Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III in June, 1988, but has not yet been nominated for the post by President Bush and is serving under temporary court appointment. He served as the government’s chief courtroom lawyer at Noriega’s hearings this week and last.

Even before being formally nominated, Lehtinen stirred controversy with what has been described as a quick temper and a domineering style in the office, which presides over some of the government’s most important drug cases.

At a staff reorganization meeting last April, he waved in the air a rubber replica of a Russian AK-47 assault rifle and told startled prosecutors: “We’re in a war, and the enemy is using real bullets,” according to an account of the meeting by the Miami Herald.

On other occasions, former prosecutors in the office said, he has displayed a volatile temper, throwing pens across the room, shouting at staff members and slamming doors.

An Army lieutenant in Vietnam who lost his sight in one eye and suffered extensive facial injuries from shrapnel wounds that required 18 months of hospitalization, Lehtinen often uses military slogans and analogies to make his point with subordinates.

“Learn the chain of command and follow it,” he has told them. Runkel said the Justice Department this week sent to the White House the FBI background check on Lehtinen and related papers, usually the last step before a nomination is sent to the Senate for confirmation.

U.S. attorneys, who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers for their districts, often personally try high-profile cases.

But the demands of the high-volume Miami office, coupled with Lehtinen’s limited courtroom experience over the last decade and his reportedly low boiling point, make him a less than ideal candidate for the Noriega trial, government sources said.

Diane Cossin, chief spokeswoman for Lehtinen, said: “I will not comment on any rumor or speculation.”

Ostrow reported from Washington and Jackson reported from Miami. Special correspondent Mike Clary contributed to this story from Miami.