FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                           CRM
MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1996                                  202-514-2007


      UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE ROBERT P. AGUILAR RESIGNS

     SAN JOSE, CA -- The Department of Justice announced today that
Robert P. Aguilar has agreed to resign immediately from his office
as a Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern
District of California, in return for which the Department of
Justice will move to dismiss the single felony count still pending
against Judge Aguilar.
     The charge to be dismissed under the agreement alleges a
violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2232(c), which
forbids any person with knowledge that a wiretap authorization has
been applied for or granted to divulge that knowledge with the
purpose of impeding the interception of communications.  As a part
of the agreement, Judge Aguilar admitted that on August 9, 1987, he
was informed by Robert Peckham, then Chief Judge of the United
States District Court for the Northern District of California, that
the name Abraham Chapman had come up in connection with a wiretap
application.  In the agreement, Judge Aguilar further admitted that
on February 6, 1988, he told his nephew that Abraham Chapman had
been overheard on a wiretap, and that later that day, his nephew
passed that information on to Abraham Chapman.     
     The parties reached this agreement in order to avoid further
litigation and to avoid the possibility of a third trial in this
matter.  The first two trials were held in 1990.  Since that time,
several obstacles have arisen which would make a third trial of
Judge Aguilar extremely difficult to prosecute; these obstacles
include the fact that two important witnesses who previously
testified for the United States are now deceased.  Because of the
difficulties posed by a third trial, the Department of Justice
determined that the interests of justice would best be served by
the agreement to dismiss the remaining count against Judge Aguilar
in exchange for his immediate removal from the federal bench.
     Judge Aguilar was indicted by a grand jury in the Northern
District of California on June 13, 1989.  The indictment alleged
eight felony counts, including a charge in Count 6 that he had
unlawfully disclosed the existence of a wiretap, and a charge in
Count 8 that he had obstructed justice by providing false
information to the FBI in connection with a grand jury
investigation.
     On March 19, 1990, a jury acquitted Judge Aguilar on one
count, and deadlocked on the remaining counts.  The Court
thereafter granted the government's unopposed motion to dismiss two
counts.  In August 1990, Judge Aguilar was retried, and was
convicted by a jury on Count 6 (disclosure of the wiretap) and
Count 8 (obstruction of justice).  He was acquitted of the three
remaining counts.
     The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed Judge
Aguilar's wiretap disclosure and obstruction of justice
convictions.  The United States Supreme Court overturned the Ninth
Circuit's reversal of the wiretap disclosure conviction, and
affirmed the Ninth Circuit's reversal of the conviction for
obstruction of justice.  Having reinstated the wiretap disclosure
conviction, the Supreme Court remanded the case to the Ninth
Circuit for further proceedings.  On remand, the Ninth Circuit,
sitting en banc, again reversed defendant's conviction under Count
6 based upon an improper jury instruction.  
     The United States has until June 24, 1996, to file a petition
for certiorari with the Supreme Court for review of the Ninth
Circuit's decision.
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