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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990                   TAG: 9003082115
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

JUDGE GIVES GO-AHEAD TO TESTIMONY BY NORTH

Oliver North will be permitted to give potentially damaging testimony against John Poindexter, the judge in the former national security adviser's Iran-Contra trial ruled today.

U.S. District Court Judge Harold Greene rejected arguments by Poindexter's lawyers that testimony from North, the government's leadoff witness, was derived from his former boss's immunized statements to Congress in 1987.

The court fight over North's upcoming testimony emerged Wednesday as a jury of seven women and five men was sworn in for the trial starting today.

At issue was North's testimony last year at his trial asserting that he watched Poindexter destroy a politically embarrassing document concerning Iran and that Poindexter directed North to mislead Congress. North denied to Congress that he was assisting the Contras militarily.

"North's own testimony, both at his trial and . . . before this court, provided a wealth of detail, and on some points those details differed from testimony given by Poindexter," the judge said.

by CNB