"Doggonedest Trial"

"Hear ye," the court clerk sang out every morning in a Manhattan federal court. "All poisons having business with the district court . . . draw near, give your attention and ye shall be hold."

Last week, as it had been for eleven weeks, it was a cry to battle. Lawyers for eleven Communist leaders, accused of conspiring against their country, circled, maneuvered and fell upon Judge Harold Medina.

The judge, not U.S. Attorney John F. X. McGohey, had become their main adversary. Sometimes sallies flew so fast between judge and lawyers that the jurors swiveled their heads like a gallery at a tennis match. After only two weeks of such exchanges, the jury began to fidget wearily--but Judge Medina had been at it for nine weeks before the jury entered the box. He was growing a little tired, and a little testy.

"My Observation Was ..." No point was too small for the defense to seize upon. Two Marxist books, entered as evidence, were shown to the jurors, and they thumbed through them. Up popped bald, stooped Lawyer Abraham Isserman to protest: "I would like to have the record note that the examination of the exhibits occupied a period of time of about ten minutes and in that time the jurors did not read the documents."

Medina looked down in disgust. "I have noticed several times," he said, "that when papers are handed to me here that you lawyers would then have it noted that I did or did not read them and how long I took to read." He didn't believe, he added, that Isserman could tell about such details from where he sat.

"If the Court pleases," Isserman persisted, "my observation was that the jury did not read. They riffled the pages. I would like to note it is now 10:55 and the jury had the documents before them a short period . . ." On & on Isserman went, until the judge said heatedly: "You have stated your objection . . . Now sit down."

"Sneering & Snickering." Besides, books were being put on trial, protested the lawyers. Judge Medina spiked that. On trial, he said, were "these individual defendants that you see here, who once in a while seem to enjoy these proceedings so much."

Lawyer Richard Gladstein popped up. The judge interrupted him: "I see them smiling, sneering and snickering there."

"Prejudicial . . . misconduct," shouted Gladstein, Lawyer Harry Sacher demanded a mistrial. Eugene Dennis, top Red leader, acting as his own attorney, rose breathlessly to point out that "we do not take this trial lightly."

So it went as the lawyers, collecting $2,275 a week from the C.P. in fees, worked to goad the judge into making a prejudicial error; it would be handy on appeal. Medina occasionally reddened with wrath as they darted in at him: Isserman with his soft bay; Gladstein with his air of righteous plausibility turning to outraged innocence when the judge caught him laying a legal trap; Harry Sacher, the little man with the bull voice, chivying the Court, then smiling impishly, eyes cast down, while the judge mildly upbraided him; Dennis rushing in occasionally to make a choked, impassioned speech.

Toward the end of the week, Judge Medina handed down a patient man's exasperated opinion: "This is the doggoned-est trial I ever saw . . . You'll probably make a motion for mistrial, but I'm not going to take it back."

"Aesopian" Language. In the witness box sat Government witness Louis Bu-denz, reformed Communist, who heard himself called a "Judas," a "liar," a "renegade." Neither name calling nor cross-examination shook Budenz, though housewives on the jury may have been shaken by his admission that he had lived out of wedlock for ten years with the woman who is now his wife. Before the week was out, Budenz had made these points:

In 1945 the U.S. Communist Party began plotting civil war in the U.S. in the event of war with Russia. Communists used an "Aesopian" language (a language in fables), to cover up the real meaning of their writings; the constitution adopted by the party in 1945, written in such lingo, sounded innocent but actually called for the "violent shattering of the capitalist state." The Communist program included "closed" secret training school for revolutionary leaders.

At every step, the Communist lawyers objected. Said Judge Medina wearily: "Sometimes it occurs to me we are going on for years . . ." Attorney Isserman objected to that, too. "Oh, Mr. Isserman," snorted Judge Medina, "you are getting so sensitive."

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