Noriega Prosecutors Withdraw Witness : Trial: DEA agent’s testimony is interrupted after defense accuses the government of withholding evidence. Attorneys and judge argue.

Prosecutors temporarily withdrew a witness against former Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega on Wednesday after bitter exchanges among attorneys and the judge.

Two other government witnesses were confronted with U.S. law enforcement documents that appeared to contradict their testimony and show that prosecutors tried to hide evidence from jurors.

For the second time in two days, defense attorneys accused the government of deliberately withholding evidence--in this case, reports from a Drug Enforcement Administration agent that disputed Noriega’s claims that he aided U.S. money-laundering investigations.

“The only way they want to play this trial out is by putting us at a disadvantage,” defense attorney Jon May said. “I am no longer willing to trust these agents.”

Prosecutor Michael P. Sullivan responded by denouncing the defense as unprepared and duplicitous.

“They stuck their necks out, and now they’re going to get their necks chopped off,” Sullivan said. “I just want to throw up my hands--we just can’t try a case this way.”

U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler agreed to interrupt the testimony of the DEA agent, Charles Vopat, until Monday.

The government’s rebuttal testimony is expected to continue through next week.

The judge also criticized the defense, which, aside from one unfrozen Noriega family bank account, has been financed by the federal government. He said the court is paying substantial amounts to help the defense, only to hear repeated pleas for delays.

With Vopat’s testimony delayed, other government agents took the stand Wednesday.

DEA agent Henry Cuervo introduced airport records that showed the arrival of American marijuana smuggler Steven Kalish in Panama in 1983. The government claims that Kalish worked closely with Noriega.

But defense attorney Frank A. Rubino showed that prosecutors had omitted from those records Panamanian documents that showed Kalish was under surveillance for carrying millions of dollars into the country.

U.S. Customs Service official Dennis Fagan testified that Panama had provided no help in capturing Ramon Milian Rodriguez, a money launderer for a Colombian drug cartel, saying the agency developed the case on its own. But he was shown DEA documents praising Panama for bringing the case to the agency’s attention.

The prosecution, however, did score some points in other testimony.

DEA official Carol Cooper took the stand to contradict defense testimony that Noriega’s police helped track a chemical shipment that led to the March, 1984, raid on a Colombian drug lab.

A former top police official for Noriega, Nivaldo Madrinan, had earlier testified by videotape from a Panamanian prison that the shipment went through Panama and his officers helped the DEA monitor it.

But Cooper said the shipment never went through Panama and was flown directly from New Orleans to Colombia. No Panamanians were involved in or were even informed of the operation, she said.

Noriega, who surrendered to U.S. forces following the December, 1989, invasion of Panama, faces up to 140 years in prison if convicted on all 10 drug and racketeering counts against him.