THE Michigan Daily Vol. LXXXIV, No. 19-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Tuesday, June 4, 1974 Ten Cents Twelve Pages (olson pleads guilty to obstructing justice Promises to tell full W'ga DISAGREEMENT -RIPS the White House's team of Watergate defense attorneys yesterday as they leave the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. James St. Clair, the President's chief lawyer, flanked by two assistants, cannot agree on where they parked their cars. Right now that's probably one of the least important things on their minds. Court backs-'U' position on tuition rebate issue te story WASHINGTON Al-Charles Col- son, saying he wants to tell the full Watergate story, pleaded guilty yesterday to obstructing justice. In return, he won agreement that he will no longer be prosecuted for the Watergate cover-up or plumb- ers' cases. The former special counsel to President Nixon said he hadn't been able to testify fully because he was under indictment in the two cases. "TO HAVE fought the two indictments might well have resulted in my eventual exoneration," he said. "As a defendant, I would have been necessarily concerned with protecting my position in the trials. That would have limited my ability to tell everything I know about the Water- gate and Watergate-related matters." Colson pleaded guilty to a newly drawn :harge: that in 1971 he concocted and :arried out a scheme to "defame and destroy the public image and credibility" of Daniel Flsberg and his attorney, then nearing trial in the Pentagon Papers -ase. The 42-year-old Colson, a lawyer who now faces disbarment, will be sentenced June 21 by U.S. District Judge Gerhard Gesell. The maximum penalty on the felony charge is five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. DISMISSAL of three previously-leveled :harges, which could have brought a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and $20,000 in fines, is just a formality awaiting separate court proceedings. Colson was one of five defendants in the White (louse plumbers case, each :harged with conspiring to violate the rights of Dr. Lewis Fielding, Ellsberg's psychiatrist, in the break-in of Fielding's office. The remaining four, including former presidential aide John Ehrlich- rman, are tentatively scheduled for trial June 17. Colson also was one of seven de- fendants in the Watergate cover-up trial, set for Sept. 9, where he faced prosecu- tion for obstructing justice and conspir- ing to obstruct. SPECIAL PROSECUTOR Leon Jawor- ski told Colson's lawyer in a letter that the plea will "dispose of all potential :harges against your client which might atherwise arise out of those matters which are or have been under active investigation." Jaworski's letter of "understandings" spelled out that Colson would now agree to testify under oath, product all rele- vant documents and be a prosecution witness against others. Meanwhile, the chairman of the na- tion's governors said yesterday the states are the ones responding to the problems of the Watergate era, while congressional leaders squabbled over who is responsible for a leadership vacuum in Washington. By GORDON ATCHESON The State Court of Appeals yes-terday struck down a lower court ruling t h a t would have required the University to rebate the difference between resident and non-resident tuition to a number of students enrolled from May 2972 to May 1973. In reversing part of a year-old Wash- tenaw County Circuit Court decision, the appeals -court saved the University "a considerable amount of money" - per- haps millions of dollars - in refunds, according to University General Coun- sel Roderick Daane. THE CIRCUIT COURT opinion, releas- ed in May 1973, declared the University's old residency rules unconstitutional and stated that students who were not pre- viously considered in-state residents but who would fall in that category under the criteria subsequently adopted be given tuition rebates retroactive to May 1972. While invalidating the rebate portion of the order, the Court of Appeals yester- day did not make mention of the other sections of the original decision. The University chose to institute new residency guidelines, rather> than chal- lenge the ruling that the former regula- tions - which required students to drop out of school for six months betcre be- ing declared residents - were illegal. "THIS IS A clear victory for the Uni- versity," Daane said of yesterday's Court of Appeals action. However, the plaintiffs - six former out of state students who filed suit against the University climing the former residency rules violated their constitutional rights - apparently ssill appeal the decision. The students' attorney Arthur Car- penter said he will file a motion for ap- peal with the state Supreme Court, but conceded it "will be tougher" to win a favorable ruling in light of- the most recent decision. "I CANNOT follow the Court of Ap- peals' reasoning on this at all," Carpen- ter said. "Theirs was a status-quo pro- tect-the-establishment ruling." Had the Circuit Court rebate decision been upheld, the University would have been forced to rebate tuition money - amounting to $800 per student per terra to those persons who were judged to be residents under the present criteria but who had paid the higher out-of-state fees during the 1972-73 academic year. Conceivably, the total amount paid in rebates could have topped $12 million, according to University offictla. IN ITS DECISION, the Court of Ap- peals felt that "as a matter of fair- -ness" because the University had al- ready budgeted and spent the funds," the tuition revenue "should not be rebated" now. The court added that paying out that much money would "take away from the quality of present programs at the University." Yesterday's ruling in no way affects the current residency rules at the Uni- versity.