THE
Summer Daily
Vol, LXXXIII, No. 50-S
Ann Arbor, Michigan-Saturday, July 28, 1973
Ten Cents
Eight Pages
Judge blasts prosecution's actions
lammondon
g uilty of
extortion
Daily Photo by DAVID MARGOLICK
John Ehrlichman is shown testifying before the Senate Watergate committee. The
former assistant to the President disppted several points made by fired White House
counsel John Dean in his fourth day of testimony.
White House
spies defended
by Ehrllchman
By DAVID STOLL
Special To The Daily
CADILLAC, Mi. - A Wexford
County circuit judge yesterday
found Rainbow People's Party mem-
bers Pun Plamondon and Craig Bla-
zier guilty of extortion by threat of
accusation.
However Judge William Peterson
found the two men innocent of three
other related charges and criticized
the state of Michigan for going to
too much trouble in prosecuting the
pair.
PLAMONDON and Blazier were cleared
on charges of conspiracy to extort, extor-
tion by threat of injury, and conspiracy
to commit criminal usury in connection
with an alleged attempt to collect $3000
in a Benzie County marijuana deal last
January.
The conviction carries a maximum 20
year sentence or $10,000 fine but Peterson
said he would delay sentencing until Sep-
tember. In the meantime Plamondon and
Blazier are free on bond.
The two men were originally arrested
on charges stemming from their January
visit to the home of confessed drug dealer
Uwe Wagner in Benzie County. Police
charged them with attempting forcefully
extort $3000 that Wagner allegedly owed
them in a marijuana transaction.
PETERSON ruled that the defendants in
fact "imposed their will upon that of Mr.
Wagner and attempted to collect money
from him", and that they threatened to
expose Wagner, a German national, as a
hard drug dealer in articles to be pub-
lished in the Ann Arbor Sun.
The judge called the extent of the pro-
secution's efforts "foolish" and told Pla-
mondon and Blazier, "an inordinate
amount of time and expense has been
spent on you."
See PUN, Page S
One deadin
Oklahoma
jail rebel ion
McALESTER, Okla. (5T-Half of the
inmates rioted at the state prison here
yesterday taking a hostage and setting
fires which raged unnampered throughout
the prison, authorities said. At least one
inmate was killed and 12 others were
injured.
Prison physician Dr. Rafael Cott said
one inmate died of stab wounds he said
were apparently inflicted' by other in-
mates. He said three other inmates were
in - critical condition. Two guards were
stabbed during the takeover.
THE REVOLT began in midafternoon
when six armed inmates stabbed the two
guards and took hostages, officials said.
But by last night Gov. David Hall said
"approximately 500 to 800 men comprise
the prison rioters." About 900 other pris-
oners returned at 8:30 p.m. to the only two
cell blocks left untouched by the fires.
Cott said he had treated 12 inmates for
a variety of injuries during the day but
had not been allowed to examine the
hostages.
One of the hostages, Deputy Warden
Sam Johnston, telephoned Warden Park
Anderson about an hour after being
seized and said, "I'm all right. They're.
treating me well."
See ONE, Page S
WASHINGTON (UPI)-John Ehrlichman
yesterday defended the use of spying
into the personal habits of politicians as
long as members of Congress "totter onto
the floor" in no condition to cast sober
votes.
In a long exchange with Sen. Lowell
Weicker fR-Coon.) during his fourth day
of cross-examination at the Senate Water-
gate hearing, the former assistant to the
President argued that the people's right
to know whether public servants are com-
petent overrides the seamy aspects of em-
ploying undercover agents.
Ehrlichman, a teetotaler, said "a kind of
unwritten law" in the news profession
keeps such news from voters, so it is
legitimate for an incumbent politician's
opponents to dig it up as best he can.
He defended the long White House em-
ployment of Anthony Ulasewicz, who tes-
tified he looked into the Chappaquiddick
affair involving Sen. Edward Kennedy
(D-Mass.) and investigated the personal,
sexual, moral and drinking habits of
friends and opponents of the Nixon ad-
ministration. Ulasewicz was paid with
campaign funds.
During the lunch break, Committee
Chairman Sam Ervin (D-S.C.) and Vice
Chairman Howard Baker (R-Tenn.) met
with Fred Buzhardt and Leonard Gar-
ment, White House counsels, on Ehrlich-
man's refusal to testify Thursday on a
project undertaken in 1971 by "the plum-
bers" unit in the White House. Ehrlichman
said it involved another nation and its
disclosure would embarrass this govern-
ment.
Ervin said the discussions would be dis-
closed "not by me between now and
when Gabriel blows his last horn."
Ehrlichman told the committee that
President Nixon gave no hint on March 22
that he knew about a Watergate cover-
up. John Dean has sworn that he told
Nixon the day earlier that his admin-
istration was involved in the cover-up and
it threatened to become a "cancer on the
presidency."
Ehrlichman said he was forced to con-
clude either that Dean had not told
Nixon all the facts or the President had
decided to feign ignorance in hopes of
entrapping his associates to reveal their
guilty knowledge.
Dean has testified that on March 21 he
decided to lay the full story of administra-
See NIXON, Page 5
Pun Plamondon