Lawmaker Is Cautioned on Trial Behavior
By FRANCIS X. CLINES
LEVELAND, Feb. 5 — Having promised a "donnybrook" at his racketeering trial, Representative James A. Traficant Jr. was sternly warned by the judge at the opening session today that the free-swinging pugnacious oratorical style that is his House signature would not be tolerated at the bar of justice.
"This trial is not going to be a donnybrook," Judge Lesley Wells of Federal District Court cautioned Mr. Traficant, a maverick Democrat from Youngstown and a nonlawyer who is acting as his own attorney in defending himself against a 10-count corruption and bribery indictment.
"You will behave yourself in this courthouse and you will behave yourself outside," Judge Wells told Mr. Traficant, a nine-term congressman who has spent months in pretrial House speeches and talk-show appearances portraying himself as a victim of a vendetta-driven Justice Department and a biased judge.
Proclaiming his innocence, Mr. Traficant predicted a donnybrook in one of many television interviews that continued through the week up to the opening minutes of the trial.
An assistant United States attorney, Craig S. Morford, arose at the outset to complain to Judge Wells that Mr. Traficant was violating the rules of procedure for trial behavior in a defense strategy "clearly aimed at poisoning the jury pool."
The 60-year-old defendant, sounding confident as a self-advocate, accused Mr. Morford of "a bold-faced lie." Mr. Traficant contended that the government was trying to taint potential jurors with "massive prosecutorial misconduct."
Judge Wells quickly warned the representative to rein in his oratory, telling him that she "will not hesitate to act" if in serving as his own lawyer he seeks to turn free speech rights into abusive license within and beyond the courtroom.
"I expect you to behave yourself," the judge said, noting that the meaning of donnybrook includes notions of "debauchery and street fighting" — quite intolerable in her court.
Hometown critics of Mr. Traficant, who has proven unbeatable at the polls, consider him a proven master at playing the victim's role in the name of speaking up for ordinary Americans against government abuse. In his recent television appearances, Mr. Traficant has likened the trial to that of an innocent mouse, himself, facing a vindictive elephant, the abusive government, which, he contended on "Crossfire" on CNN, "has the judge on their side."
Judge Wells appeared ready for Mr. Traficant today, indicating that she has been tracking his characterizations beyond the courtroom.
"You may be very surprised," she warned in castigating his prediction. Outside the court, Mr. Traficant has been making a point of denouncing the government for making Americans fearful, "even the judges appointed to lifetime terms."
Judge Wells looked down at him and declared, "We're going to give you a very fair trial."
Mr. Traficant was rebuffed in pretrial motions to learn the religious and ethnic backgrounds of potential jurors. As a defender of John Demjanjuk, a controversial Ukrainian immigrant acquitted of being a World War II Holocaust torturer known as Ivan the Terrible, Mr. Traficant has complained that some jurors with Jewish sympathies could prove biased.
"I have concern about certain political and religious organizations who have targeted me," the representative said, indicating that jury challenges would be a crucial part of his fight to prove his innocence.
He is accused of starting a "pattern of racketeering" shortly after taking office in 1985 to solicit bribes from executives in return for official favors. The authorities say he urged a staff member to destroy evidence and took $2,500 a month from another in return for hiring him.
Mr. Traficant, who faces more than 60 years in prison and $2 million in fines if convicted, seized the courtroom initiative at an earlier trial, successfully defending himself against charges of mob kickbacks in 1983, when he was a local sheriff. He contended that he took the money in a secret sting operation, not an act of corruption.
That trial saw him hone his image as a defender of powerless people against government abuse, and he was eventually elected to Congress.
The jury selection is important, because the judge has ruled that potential jurors have to be from the Cleveland region, without any, as Mr. Traficant had sought, from his district area of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. There, supporters look on Mr. Traficant as a populist folk hero for having previously defeated the government.
Dozens of local politicians and mobsters there have been indicted in an continuing corruption inquiry. Until now, Mr. Traficant has used his considerable speaking skills to defend himself as a victim standing up for his blue-collar constituency. That is expected to be a main theme of his opening argument. In advance, Mr. Traficant showed no hesitation to stand and raise objections even before a jury was selected.
He said considerable public and news media interest had caused an overflow room to be opened with television monitoring of the trial, a situation, Mr. Traficant said, that does not catch the proper "ambience of all the people involved."
Judge Wells replied that the public's interest had to be served.
Mr. Traficant had also wanted an aide allowed to take notes in the courtroom away from the defense table. There, the congressman positioned himself as a lone figure facing the government's table full of prosecutors and F.B.I. agents.