CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Aguilar’s Ex-Friend Testifies at Trial

U.S. District Judge Robert P. Aguilar’s ex-girlfriend testified at his racketeering trial Friday that Aguilar warned her not to tell anyone about a trip they made to Acapulco to visit a tax fugitive. Suzanne Penland of Napa, Calif., also testified that Aguilar told her in 1987 he planned to contact another judge in an effort to help a friend, Ronald Cloud, on trial in a $20-million bank fraud case. Penland testified she accompanied Aguilar on an April, 1982, trip to Acapulco where Aguilar visited his former secretary, who had fled the United States for Mexico to avoid prison on a tax evasion conviction. Penland testified under a grant of immunity from the government. Aguilar, 58, a 1980 appointee of President Jimmy Carter, is the only federal judge in the United States ever charged with racketeering.