---

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 22, 1993                   TAG: 9302220060
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

---

GERHARD GESELL, PENTAGON PAPERS JUDGE, DIES AT 82

Gerhard Gesell, a federal judge who presided over Watergate cases and the Iran-Contra affair, died Friday of liver cancer. He was 82.

Gesell, appointed to the federal District Court in Washington in 1967 by President Lyndon Johnson, also oversaw the release of the Pentagon Papers.

In Watergate, Gesell ruled that the dismissal of special prosecutor Archibald Cox in October 1973 had been illegal, and heard motions regarding the possession and disposition of President Nixon's secret White House tapes.

---