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

DATE: SUNDAY, February 27, 1994                   TAG: 9402270111
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

TAXPAYERS PAY FOR AMESES' DEFENSE

Aldrich and Rosario Ames, whose lavish lifestyle allegedly was financed by $1.5 million they received as spies for Moscow, are getting the best defense money can buy from two of Washington's top criminal lawyers.

The money is coming from U.S. taxpayers.

Although the Ameses own a half-million-dollar house and have a six-figure stock portfolio, those assets were frozen by the government. So they will be represented by court-appointed lawyers.

Making $60 an hour, a fraction of his usual rate, to defend Aldrich Ames is Plato Cacheris, who has represented several high-profile clients, including Oliver North's former White House secretary, Fawn Hall, who was accused of shredding documents as part of the Iran-Contra affair.

Former federal prosecutor William B. Cummings, who was the U.S. attorney in Alexandria, Va., in the late 1970s, is representing Rosario Ames for the same fee.

by CNB