Judge Refuses to Dismiss Drug Case Against Noriega : Law: Ruling expresses concerns about recordings of the ex-dictator’s phone calls. The court may bar some future witnesses and certain evidence.

While expressing concern about “irregularities” in the way the government obtained 162 recordings of Manuel A. Noriega’s jailhouse phone conversations, a federal judge Monday refused to throw out the drug smuggling case against the former Panamanian ruler.

Dismissing the charges “is too extreme a sanction to what has taken place,” U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler said in denying a defense motion which argued that Noriega’s right to a fair trial had been compromised by prosecutors who had access to privileged talks between the defendant and his attorneys.

However, Hoeveler left open the possibility that he could bar the introduction of certain evidence or prohibit government witnesses from testifying if he found them tainted by government misconduct.

Defense lawyers filed the motion to dismiss the charges after recordings of Noriega’s conversations were leaked to Cable News Network and put on television. In at least one of those conversations, Noriega discussed the identities of potential prosecution witnesses with an attorney.

In an extraordinary proceeding 10 days ago, Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Patrick Sullivan took the witness stand to testify that he had not listened to any of the tapes and that the prosecution team had not benefited from overhearing any privileged conversations. He also argued that Noriega, knowing his calls were monitored, talked in code and thus waived his right to confidentiality.

Defense attorney Frank Rubino disagreed. “Because a man is cautious . . . is not a waiver on (Noriega’s) part,” he said.

“This has had a chilling effect on the general. He’s been monitored, the tapes leaked to the press, he’s heard them on television. . . . And he’s been videotaped in his cell.”

Before ruling on the motion to dismiss, Hoeveler said he would officially name Rubino and co-counsel Jon May as Noriega’s lawyers at a special rate of $75 an hour if millions of dollars Noriega has stashed in 27 foreign bank accounts remain frozen. Normally, court-appointed lawyers receive $40 to $60 an hour. However, prosecutors have told the judge that $1.6 million which an Austrian court has agreed to release should be available within days.

Defense lawyers say that money will merely cover fees and expenses incurred through the end of last year. The defense claims some $4 million to $6 million is needed to mount an adequate defense and that they have received nothing since Noriega was brought to the United States last January.

Noriega is scheduled to stand trial on June 24. He is charged in a 1988 indictment with providing a drug-trafficking and money-laundering sanctuary for South American drug dealers. The indictment said Noriega and his co-defendants knew the dealers were selling their drugs in the United States.

If convicted, Noriega faces a maximum penalty of 145 years in prison and a $1.1-million fine.