Reversal for Remington

After Ann Moos Remington took the stand last winter against her handsome ex-husband, William Remington, the Government's perjury case against him seemed to be nailed down tight. Remington, a onetime Department of Commerce economist, had denied ever being a Communist. But Mrs. Remington not only corroborated testimony by former Communist Elizabeth Bentley but said that she had married him only after he promised to keep on being a party member.

After listening to the two women and a host of minor witnesses, the jury found Remington guilty; he was fined $2,000 and sentenced to five years in prison. Last week, however, the three-man U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously reversed the conviction. In their opinion, New York Federal Judge Gregory F. Noonan had been "vague and indefinite" in charging the jury as to that wildly baffling point: what constitutes proof of membership in the Communist Party. The court ruled that he had also erred in denying Remington minutes of his own grand jury testimony and that U.S. Attorney Irving H. Saypol had harped unfairly on the fact that a defense witness had changed his name from Rothenberg to Redmont.

Remington, who is free on $7,000 bail, was picking blackberries in Vermont with his two children when he heard the news. Said he happily: "I am very pleased with the result. I am confident that I will be vindicated."

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