Judge Voids Racketeering Charges Against S.F. Attorney Hallinan

A federal judge Tuesday threw out racketeering charges against San Francisco attorney Patrick Hallinan but left intact the bulk of the government’s drug-related charges against him.

After arguments on a defense motion to dismiss the case, U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben ruled that prosecutors failed to prove the existence of a criminal organization in which Hallinan was accused of participating.

Hallinan remains accused of aiding a $140-million international marijuana smuggling ring headed by wealthy Squaw Valley, Calif., developer Ciro Wayne Mancuso, who also is Hallinan’s former client.

Prosecutors contend that Hallinan, 60, helped drug smugglers flee the country, hid documents, laundered money and coached witnesses to lie to authorities and a federal grand jury to protect the smuggling operation.

Hallinan’s defense lawyers maintain that the case was orchestrated by Mancuso, whom Hallinan represented for years, most recently after his arrest in 1989 on federal drug charges.

Mancuso pleaded guilty a year later under a favorable plea bargain that Hallinan helped negotiate. Mancuso, who has not been sentenced, was allowed to keep millions of dollars and lives in a mansion near Lake Tahoe.