Pubdate: Fri, 31 Jan 2003
Source: Times-Picayune, The (LA)
Copyright: 2003 The Times-Picayune
Contact:  http://www.nola.com/t-p/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/848
Author: Martha Carr, East Jefferson bureau
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)

BODENHEIMER REPEATS INNOCENT PLEA

Ex-Judge Ronald Bodenheimer pleaded innocent to federal drug and conspiracy 
charges Thursday for the second time in six months, and his attorney began 
previewing their attack on the government's use of covert wiretaps to 
investigate a sitting jurist.

Bodenheimer, whose term on the 24th District Court in Gretna ended Dec. 31, 
calmly reasserted his innocence before Magistrate Judge Louis Moore Jr. 
Bodenheimer is charged with conspiring to plant three prescription 
painkiller pills on a frequent critic of his Venetian Isles Marina. The 
plea came in response to a slightly amended indictment issued this month by 
a grand jury. The indictment alleges that Bodenheimer tried to recruit two 
police officers to assist with the frame-up.

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Bodenheimer said little during the five-minute hearing, which occurred in a 
courtroom not unlike the one in which he presided for three years. After 
the hearing, defense attorney Eddie Castaing told reporters outside the 
federal courthouse in New Orleans that he is preparing a motion to suppress 
the wiretap evidence in the government's case. He says the wiretap approval 
never should have been granted by Judge A.J. "Buddy" McNamara in 2001.

Castaing says the government failed to show sufficient justification in its 
application for electronic surveillance. He said the surveillance, which 
included telephone taps and audio and video monitoring of Bodenheimer's 
private chambers, should be allowed only when conventional investigative 
measures can't be used.

Prosecutors' application for the wiretaps is under seal, on orders from the 
trial judge, Ginger Berrigan.

Castaing also might ask to move Bodenheimer's trial, now scheduled for 
March 31, to another federal court district if he thinks his client cannot 
get a fair trial because of widespread publicity in the New Orleans area.
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