F. Lee Bailey Attends Noriega Trial, Casts Doubt on Witness

MIAMI —  Celebrated defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey on Wednesday made a guest appearance at the drug-trafficking trial of Manuel A. Noriega to discuss his suggestion that a chief witness against the former ruler of Panama had lied.

Bailey had hinted last month, in a letter to Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael P. Sullivan, that Gabriel Taboada, Bailey’s former client, may not have been telling the truth when he testified that he saw Noriega receive $500,000 from Colombian cocaine lords. Taboada, a Colombian convicted of drug-smuggling, was the only witness to say he saw Noriega accept money from the Medellin cartel. His testimony remains among the most incriminating heard in the six-month-old trial.

Bailey represented Taboada at his 1989 cocaine trial in South Carolina. Taboada was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler conducted an inquiry into the allegation, which, if substantiated, could prove to be a blow to the prosecution’s case. With the jury out of the courtroom, Bailey said Taboada gave him permission to disclose to prosecutors the substance of their confidential discussions. He said he did not believe his conversations with Taboada were privileged.

Taboada, however, denied Bailey’s assertion about privilege. Brought to the courtroom from a nearby federal prison, he said he did not waive his right to keep attorney-client conversations private, but offered to discuss the matter further with Hoeveler in chambers. He did so.