CNN Turns Noriega Tapes Over to Judge

Cable News Network today handed over to a federal judge tapes of Manuel Noriega talking on the telephone from his prison cell.

After receiving the tapes from a team of CNN lawyers, U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler gave them to federal Magistrate William C. Turnoff.

CNN unsuccessfully appealed Hoeveler’s earlier temporary order barring the network from airing the tapes. Some of the tapes were broadcast before an appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the order.

Hoeveler previously said he would give the tapes to the federal magistrate so that Hoeveler, who will preside over Noriega’s drug-trafficking trial, is not “tainted” by any disclosures about Noriega’s defense strategy.

Noriega’s attorneys claim that the tapes disclose defense maneuvers and have damaged the deposed Panamanian dictator’s chances for a fair trial.

Hoeveler said today the tapes would be transcribed and translated from Spanish, then would be studied by Turnoff. Hoeveler said he did not know how long that would take.

The tapes will be reviewed to decide whether they would damage Noriega’s right to a fair trial. If the judge then orders a permanent ban on further broadcasts, CNN can again appeal, eventually to the U.S. Supreme Court.