Page 10-Wednesday, June 18, 1980-The Michigan Daily
Jury indicts
reputed Mafia
don in bribery
conspiracy

From AP and UPI
NEW ORLEANS-A federal grand
jury indicted a reputed Mafia don and
three other men yesterday on charges
of conspiring to bribe public officials to
obtain stateinsurance contracts.
The indictments stemmed from the
FBI's unusual undercover "sting"
operation code-named Brilab.
IN ADDITION to Carlos Marcello,
the "Little Man" whom the government
has tried to deport for 27 years, the in-
dictment named Charles Roemer II, I.
Irving Davidsonnd Vincent Marinello.
"The defendants conspired to
defraud the citizens of Jefferson
Parish, the city of New Orleans and the
state of Louisiana of their right to the
honest and faithful services of their
elected and appointed officials," the in-
dictment charged.
Roemer, of Shreveport, was the right-
hand-man to the governor of Louisiana

holding the post of state commissioner
of administration.
ROEMER AND FORMER Lt. Gov.
James Fitzmorris of New Orleans were
the two public officials named as
allegedly receiving money, but Fit-
zmorris was not indicted.
Fitzmorris, now a special assistant to
Gov. David Treen, said he would confer
with his lawyer before commenting.
Davidson works as a Washington lob-
byist and Marinello is a New Orleans
lawyers.
THE INDICTMENT charged
racketeering, mail and wire fraud and
conspiracy during a period from
Febraury 1979 through February 1980.
Another Brilab grand jury, meeting
in Houston, indicted Texas Speaker of
the House Billy Clayton and three other
men last week.
Brilab, a combination of bribery-
labor, also extended into Arkansas and
Oklahoma before its existence was
prematurely made public by a judge in
California.
IN WASHINGTON, Davidson
declined comment. Roemer, Marcello
and Marinello could not be contacted.
The 12-count indictment said the four
conspired to bribe public officials to ob-
tain insurance contracts from thestate,
the city. of New Orleas, adjoining Jef-
ferson Parish, labor unions and Avon-
dale Shipyard.
Davidson, Roemer and Marcello
were to get a cut of the lucrative com-
missions, the indictment said.
Marcello, now 70 and still fighting ef-
forts to deport him to Italy, was com-
pletely taken in by three FBI under-
cover agents, according to actions
outlined in the indictment.
One of the undercover men was
thrice-convicted Joseph Hauser, an in-
surance con man cooperating with the
FBI to get himself out of prison.
Working with him were two agents
using the names Michael Sachs and
Larry Golden.

APrPhoto
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY ponders pending judicial nominations yesterday
during a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Massachusetts
legislator's chances for winning the Democratic presidential nomination
worsened as President Carter's forces asserted early control of the shaping
of the party's platform.
Carter foripes-take
com mand in shaping-
De-mocratic platfor~m

WASHINGTON (AP)-President
Carter's forces asserted early, decisive
control over the shaping of the 1980
Democratic platform yesterday as a
drafting panel rejected Sen. Edward
Kennedy's proposed economic
program.
The 15-member platform subcom-
mittee, on which nine Carter backers
sit, decided instead to write an
economic platform from a staff-
prepared outline that generally praises
Carter's economic policies and urges
their continuation. The vote was 9-3.
THE STAFF OUTLINE, which is
subject to numerous revisions, went
one step further than Carter has on
economic policy by committing the
Democratic Party to tax cuts in 1981,

"when inflationary pressures will be
reduced." Carter has said he is con-
sidering proposing a tax reduction in
1981, but has stopped short of commit-
ting his administration to such a move.
Kennedy's proposals included wage-
price controls and a $12-billion job-
creating program to counter a deepen-
ing recession, positions deeply op-
posed by Carter, whose policies have
emphasized spending restraints and
concentrated on reducing inflation.
Kennedy's supporters lost their first
platform confrontation earlier yester-
day by a narrower 7-4 vote when the
Carter camp prevailed on a procedural
vote to bar the media and the public
from the drafting session.
THE TWIN KENNEDY setbacks,
coming at the opening of a scheduled
three-day executive session for drafting
a party platform, presaged a fight over
positions that the two presidential
rivals likely will carry to the floor of the
Aug. 11-14 Democratic National Con-
vention in New York City.
"Obviously, taking some minority
planks to the floor of the convention is a
very real possibility," said Peter
Edelman, Kennedy's chief issues ad
viser.