Tape of Camarena’s Torture Might Be Withheld From Jury : Trial: In it, drug lords question the doomed DEA agent. Defense lawyers term the recording ‘prejudicial.’

The judge presiding over the Enrique Camarena murder trial said Tuesday he might not allow the prosecution to play for the jury a tape recording of the federal drug agent being interrogated and tortured by his alleged killers.

Lawyers for the four defendants argued before U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie that playing the tapes would be highly prejudicial to their clients. Defense lawyers Martin R. Stolar and Gregory Nicolaysen said they are willing to stipulate that Camarena was interrogated and to provide the jury with a transcript.

Federal prosecutors vehemently objected to the proposed stipulation. They have planned to play the Spanish tapes, with a simultaneous translation shown on a courtroom wall.

The dramatic tapes, recorded by the interrogators, were found by Mexican law enforcement officers some weeks after Camarena’s kidnaping on Feb. 7, 1985. Drug Enforcement Administration officials obtained copies after Mexican officials resisted turning them over.

The tapes were played at the 1988 trial in Los Angeles of three men who were convicted of involvement in the Camarena murder and given long prison sentences.

The tapes reveal Camarena’s voice weakening during the course of his interrogation, during which he was asked what he knew about Mexican narcotics trafficking and the relationship between drug lords and certain Mexican government officials. At one point, the agent can be heard pleading for care for his ribs; in another exchange he implores, “Don’t hurt my family.”

Other voices on the tape have been identified as those of Mexican drug kingpin Rafael Caro Quintero, now serving a long prison term in Mexico for his involvement in the Camarena murder, and Sergio Espino Verdin, a former official of Mexico’s Ministry of the Interior. He has been indicted in Los Angeles for participating in Camarena’s murder, but has not been brought here to face charges.

Assistant U.S. Atty. John L. Carlton said that defense lawyers have known for some time that prosecutors plan to play the tapes and charged that they were making an improper, last-minute attempt “to control how the government presents its case.”

While Rafeedie chided defense lawyers for not presenting their proposed stipulation earlier, the judge told prosecutors he needed to be persuaded that giving the jurors a transcript would not suffice.

“There are many other reasons” to play the tapes, Carlton said without elaborating.

“Get them to me as soon as you can,” Rafeedie said.

It is possible that the judge could make a ruling on the tapes as early as today, as the government had planned to start playing them this week.

Lawyers for defendant Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros, meanwhile, secured a potentially valuable decision from Rafeedie, who said he would allow their own expert witness to examine two fibers of hair found at the Guadalajara house where Camarena was tortured.

An FBI forensics expert has reported that the fibers match Matta’s hair. The defendant’s lawyers contend that the method used by the FBI is unscientific.