War Prompts Postponement of Weapons Smuggling Trial

Concerned about the impact of the Gulf War on prospective jurors, a federal judge on Friday postponed the trial of retired Air Force Col. Joseph O’Toole, a local aviation consultant accused of trying to smuggle weapons to the Middle East.

U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts rescheduled O’Toole’s trial date for Oct. 15 after considering defense arguments that extensive media coverage of Operation Desert Storm and possible prejudice toward Arab nations would make it impossible to pick an impartial jury.

The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Atty. Baruch Weiss, did not oppose the request to delay O’Toole’s trial, originally set for March 5.

O’Toole, 58, who flew more than 100 combat missions in the Vietnam War, is accused of plotting in 1989 to sell and deliver 712 Stinger antiaircraft missiles through Turkey to an undisclosed country, and three Lockheed C-130E military transport planes to Iran for $12 million each.

Weiss says the proposed sale of the weapons violated the Arms Export Control Act, which requires the State Department to approve all transfers abroad of American-made military equipment. The law prohibits the sale of such material to countries that have supported acts of international terrorism, such as Iran.

Deputy Public Defender H. Dean Steward, who heads the federal Public Defender’s Office in Santa Ana, contends that the sale of the weapons was proper and that Turkey was the final destination of the Stinger missiles. The prosecution will not say which country the Stingers were eventually bound for.