Noriega Attorneys Favor Severing Trial of 5 Others : Drug charges: The defense teams of the ex-dictator and of his co-defendants want cases handled separately.

Attorneys for Manuel A. Noriega are privately encouraging a move by five of his co-defendants to obtain a separate, earlier trial on grounds that they should not suffer from the adverse publicity that has surrounded the deposed Panamanian dictator.

Noriega’s former associates have asked a federal judge to sever them from the main narcotics conspiracy case on grounds they would be unfairly exposed to prejudice if they were tried along with an “internationally notorious figure,” as one attorney put it.

But according to lawyers for two of the co-defendants, Noriega’s defense team has its own reasons for favoring severance, an issue that U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler is expected to decide sometime this month.

A separate and presumably earlier trial of the general’s five former associates could work to Noriega’s advantage by exposing weaknesses in the testimony of government witnesses who later would be called upon to testify against Noriega.

One such witness is Floyd Carlton-Caceres, a pilot and one-time confidant of Noriega who has claimed he flew cocaine shipments from Colombia to Panama and brought bundles of U.S. currency to Noriega from the United States.

Carlton also would be a key witness against Lt. Col. Luis A. del Cid, a former high-ranking friend of Noriega in the Panama Defense Forces and the most important co-defendant presently in U.S. custody, according to Del Cid’s lawyer, Samuel I. Burstyn.

“I guarantee you I will score some hits on Carlton,” Burstyn said in an interview. “I would plan to keep him on the witness stand three or four days to develop inconsistencies in his testimony.”

Carlton said in testimony before the U.S. Senate in 1988 that he delivered more than $200,000 to Del Cid at PDF headquarters for transmission to Noriega.

Burstyn said he also might call Jose I. Blandon, who once worked for Noriega as U.S. consul general, to testify about the limits of Del Cid’s knowledge. Blandon is considered a key prosecution witness against Noriega.

Two lawyers in the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that Noriega attorneys Frank A. Rubino and Steven Collin are hoping that the co-defendants will obtain a severance and have promised specific help to some of them.

That help would include an affidavit or testimony from Noriega attesting to their lack of criminal involvement, the attorneys said.

Burstyn and Richard A. Sharpstein, who represents co-defendant Brian Alden Davidow, an accused American cocaine smuggler, said they are asking for severances to avoid the “spill-over effects” of adverse publicity about Noriega and because their defenses are “antagonistic” to that of Noriega.

“We don’t want to be part of that three-ring circus, especially if the general is planning to admit to all the crimes and say he did it with the sanction of the U.S. government,” Burstyn said.

“Our defenses are going to be very distinct (from Noriega’s),” Sharpstein added, referring to Davidow and other co-defendants. “We’re going to deny the crimes.”

Noriega’s lawyers have said they plan to base their defense on the general’s former status as an informant for the CIA and Drug Enforcement Administration and evidence that Noriega’s allegedly illicit activities were approved by U.S. intelligence agencies.

To establish such evidence, Rubino and Collin plan to seek access to top-secret U.S. government files, a process that is expected to take many months of court proceedings.

Burstyn and Sharpstein said their clients, and, they believed, the other co-defendants, could be ready for trial by next month--long before the time that Noriega’s legal team has said it would be prepared.

The other co-defendants are pilots Daniel Miranda and Eduardo Pardo, and William Saldarriaga, an alleged smuggler.

On the issue of severance, Noriega’s lawyers have not taken a public position. They could not be reached last week for comment.