Hasenfus Loses Fight Over Pay for Contra Flights

Eugene Hasenfus, who says his life has been on a steady downward slide since being shot down by a Sandinista rocket in 1986 while taking part in the illegal Contra resupply operation, was shot down again here Monday by a federal district court jury considering his claims for back pay and legal fees.

After five weeks of testimony and five days of deliberation, the six-member panel found Iran-Contra figure Richard V. Secord and Southern Air Transport not liable for money Hasenfus and his wife, Sally, claim they were promised by officials of the Ronald Reagan Administration.

“It’s very devastating,” said Hasenfus, 49. “You can’t believe in that old patriotism bit. But at least I lived through it.”

Hasenfus was the sole survivor of the crash of a C-123 cargo plane shot down over Nicaragua on Oct. 5, 1986. Three people died, including Wallace B. (Buzz) Sawyer, whose widow was also a plaintiff in the civil suit. After parachuting safely to the ground, Hasenfus was captured by the Sandinistas, convicted of terrorism and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was released in less than three months.

In their suit, Hasenfus and Sawyer’s widow, Kasanee, argued that the organizers of the flight--Secord and Southern Air--should be held responsible for damages.

Before the case went to the jury, Judge C. Clyde Atkins pared down the suit considerably, ordering jurors not to consider damages for mental stress or claims of negligence and misrepresentation.

Hasenfus’ attorney, Brian R. Strange of Los Angeles, said he thought the jury wanted to award money to his client, “but the way the judge’s instructions to the jury read, they couldn’t figure out how to do it.”

Thomas R. Spencer Jr., Secord’s attorney, said: “I understand the emotional impetus behind (the suit). But it is a suit that should never have been brought.’

During the trial, Secord testified that he was “working for the President of the United States on a very sensitive mission” to resupply the Contras during a time when lethal aid to the rebels was prohibited by law. When he learned of the crash, he said he ordered $60,000 in death benefits paid to the families of the dead crewmen, but the Swiss accounts containing the money were frozen during the Iran-Contra probe and remain so. Hasenfus, who claims to be more than $100,000 in debt, was not scheduled for any benefits.

The trial also featured testimony by deposition that then-Vice President George Bush was aware of the resupply operation before Hasenfus was shot down. In sworn testimony taken in October, 1989, Richard B. Gadd, a former Air Force colonel, said that Robert Dutton, hired to correct aircraft maintenance problems, told him that Bush had discussed the resupply operation with Felix Rodriguez, a former CIA agent.

Bush has repeatedly denied knowing about the covert operation.

“The biggest thing was the cause,” Hasenfus said before heading back home to rural Wisconsin and his construction job. “When your government needs you, when they call upon you for a covert deal and then erase their fingerprints immediately, you know what’s happening, but you put your trust in it. I was one of a lot of people left holding the bag.”