Bugliosi Effort to Quash Perjury Charges Fails
Saturday, September 7th, 1974
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 7 – Attorney Vincent T. Bugliosi’s second attempt to have perjury charges against him dismissed prior to his Sept. 25 trial was turned down Friday by Superior Judge Earl C. Broady.
Bugliosi and Daye Shinn, chief prosecutor and a defense attorney respectively in the 1970 Charles Manson murder trial, were indicted last June 28 for allegedly lying under oath in denying they gave information to newsman William Farr despite a court gag order.
Harland Braun, Bugliosi’s lawyer, Friday asked Broady to drop the charges against his client on grounds Bugliosi had been denied his constitutional right to a speedy trial.
Broady, on Aug. 27, denied a move by both Bugliosi and Shinn to dismiss the charges on grounds the grand jury had insufficient evidence to reach its indictment.
Braun has requested a separate trial for Bugliosi.
Braun argued unsucessfully Friday that the 44-month delay from the week of Oct. 5, 1970 — when Bugliosi allegedly handed Farr a transcript until last June, when the indictment was handed up, had blurred the memories of witnesses who might help Bugliosi defend himself.
But Broady said the case had received continued publicity and was fresh in the minds of those involved. He said the fact that an attorney general’s investigation apparently ended June 29, 1973, did not preclude authorities from continuing to seek evidence on which to base charges.
Dep. Atty. Gen. William Pounders, questioned by Braun, said he interviewed about 30 people during the attorney general’ s investigation. No charges were brought by the state prosecutor’s office.
Broady said the leading case showing charges should be dropped for unreasonable delay involved a 19-month hiatus after, not before, the defendant was charged and could not be applied to Bugliosi’s situation.
“To limit the time in which an indictment might be brought would foreclose authorities from making indictments in any number of cases (before the statute of limitations on the crime expired).” Broady said.
“I can’t find any oppressive, willful delay or negligence here,” he said.
Braun said he will appeal Broady’s decision.
Theodore P. Shield, a private attorney, was named special prosecutor last May at the request of the Board of Supervisors to avoid any possible conflict of interest by regular agencies.
Two of the six Manson case attorneys are deputies of Dist. Atty. Joseph P. Busch. and Atty. Gen. Evelle J. Younger was district attorney here at the time of the Manson trial.
By MYRNA OLIVER
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