LOS ANGELES, Jul. 31 – Defense attorneys Irving Kanarek and Ronald Hughes, who represent principals in the Tate-LaBianca murder trial, were released yesterday from Central Jail where they spent the night for contempt.

The two attorneys were cited for contempt of court Wednesday by Superior Court Judge Charles H. Older and were ordered to jail when they refused to pay $75 fines.

As they emerged at 6:10 am. yesterday from the rear exit of the jail, Kanarek and Hughes said they were given the “kid glove-red carpet treatment.”

“Prisoners stood in a long line, but we were allowed to go through the booking process ahead of the others,” Kanarek said.

They both said they were allowed to visit their clients in the jail. Kanarek represents Charles Manson and Hughes is the attorney for Leslie Van Houten.

The lawyers said that jail wasn’t too bad but agreed that the food could be better.

“It was palatable, though,” Hughes remarked.

Kanarek and Hughes said they occupied a cell next to the one used by Sirhan Sirhan, convicted slayer of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

Kanarek confessed to reporters that this was not the first time he had been jailed.

He explained that he spent the night in jail a “couple of months ago” after he was held in contempt of court by a municipal judge.

“They freed my client,” Kanarek sighed, “and sent me to jail.” He said that the previous contempt citation was similar to this one for interrupting in court after repeated warnings from the bench. Judge Older termed the outburst “disorderly, disruptive, vulgar and unprofessional.”

“I didn’t interrupt Mrs. (Linda) Kasabian,” Kanarek said. “Shp interrupted me.”

Linda Kasabian is the star witness in the case against Manson and three female members of his “family,” accused of the murders of actress Sharon Tate and six other persons in the summer of 1969.