Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 27, 1990 TAG: 9003270175
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Copies of the March 14 Executive Intelligence Review newsletter were in newspaper mailboxes early Monday and also had been delivered to Salem businesses. It was the second LaRouche newsletter attacking Weckstein to be distributed in the Roanoke Valley since Roanoke County juries have convicted two LaRouche followers of securities fraud in the past four months.
Michael Billington and Donald Phau were convicted of violating the Virginia Securities Act by soliciting loans from people in an attempt to raise funds for the LaRouche organization while knowing the organization never would be able to repay the loans. Weckstein imposed jury sentences of 77 and 35 years respectively on Billington and Phau.
The cases of more than a dozen LaRouche followers have been moved to Roanoke County from Loudoun County because of pretrial publicity.
LaRouche, who was convicted of similar charges in federal court in Alexandria, is a perennial losing candidate for president and has been described by many as a political extremist.
The article in the March 14 newsletter is titled "The Judge Who `Fixed' the LaRouche Trials" and argues that Weckstein was appointed judge after he successfully defended Del. Chip Woodrum, D-Roanoke, on a drunken driving charge in 1982.
Weckstein said Monday that he could not discuss the newsletter. "I am prohibited by the Canons of Judicial Conduct from making any comment due to the fact that this involves cases that are pending before me."
In an earlier flier titled "Nazi-Soviet Justice Comes to Virginia," Weckstein's decisions are called "barbaric." In the Billington and Phau trials, Weckstein "has shown the world that fascist legal procedures, reminiscent of the courtroom practices of the notorious Nazi Judge Roland O. Friesler, are used in the United States today," the flier states.
by CNB