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

DATE: FRIDAY, May 18, 1990                   TAG: 9005180364
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: LUBBOCK, TEXAS                                LENGTH: Short

PANAMANIAN STUDENT CLEARED OF BUSH THREAT

Otto Lakas, an architecture student at Lubbock Christian University, could have faced a 5-year prison term if he had been convicted in U.S. District Court.

Lakas, the son of Demetrio B. Lakas, president of Panama from 1972-78, clenched his fists and looked toward the ceiling, tears rolling down his cheeks as the verdict was read. The jury deliberated only 15 minutes.

Government prosecutors refused to comment about the decision.

Otto Lakas was accused of threatening Bush in a discussion with the managers of a pawnshop where he was looking at a gun.

Before the verdict, which came in the second day of the trial, family and friends testified about his non-aggressive nature. They characterized the statements as a joke.

But Secret Service agents took Lakas at his word and had jailed him without bond since April 17. - Associated Press