SAN FRANCISCO'S U.S. ATTORNEY MAKES HIS NAME CHASING SPIES, POT GROWERS AND ALIENS WHO VOTE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605680003-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 2, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605680003-5
ARTICLE r THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A- PEAr.ED 2 November 1982
ON PAGE S6
Activist Prosecutor
San Francisco's I.S. Attorney M
akes His Name
Chasing Spies, Pot Growers and Aliens Who Vote
Mr. Russoniello denies having had dis- I Leaving a private law practice to take
By MARILYN CHASE criminatory motives. Indeed, the mention of the 557,000-'-year federal job entailed a
discrimination induces from him stories of "sacrifice of $80,000 a year," Mr. Russon-
SrgrJ Reportrr of THE WA" a Srnr:r.r JavatNA" his own boyhood as an Italian baker's son in iello says. "My wife and I really thought it
SAN FRANCISCO-To his conservative a lower-middle-class neighborhood of Jersey over." He says that they concluded: "If we
partisans, Joseph P. Russoniello, the U.S. City, N.J. He says that ethnic slurs directed didn't do it. who would?"
attorney for the northern district of Califor- at Italians caused him to put his 1966 New Once sworn in and installed in his 16th-
nia, is a splendid prosecutor. To detractors.' York University law degree to use as an FBI floor federal-building quarters. Mr. Rtisson-
he is a than insensitive to civil rights. In his agent. He took his first job in?.Iaw enforce- iello quickly won the loyalty of FBI and Cus-
nine months in office, the 41-year-old Rea- ment."as a purge, to lay to_rest the unjust toms Department agents with his zeal for
gan appointee has managed to attract both hands-on investigating and his drive to pros-
a-" --A ,,A,,,4 ,,4,,,, A.n.,n rhrm ,vhn hnvn .. ~~,.-... aa..~ .,t t?~t:.,.,_?w.e,,.,....-r n-A H P
t m: a ng .7 companies, lac an isu
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voters. to a partnership in the firm of Cooley, God- Corp., to obtain IBM computer se
While M.r. Rus- Joscp.k P. Russoniello ward. Castro, Huddleston & Tatum, where Electric Co
an associate says: . .Joe was .a tremendous crets was already under way when Mr. Rus-
theJloustichas e Justice the Department, of he has hbecom subecome a at trial lawyer. He would run from one trial to sorieilo was sworn in. But he assumed the
the J the cases, he says, "with a de-
enced of liberals. "He might be an experi- the next, and he always seemed to win." leadership
termination of ths1, rather than Washinatde,
enced trial lawyer," says Rep. Don Edwards Mr. Russoniello's winning streak suffered would " Ira her than the Justice
of California, "but he has a lot to learn one expensive interruption when he ran for would ation that a prose u assign He
seven ked thes u San
district attorney of San Francisco in 1979. De to about civil rights."
Late entry, blunt talk and political naivete Jose, in the heart of Silicon Valley. "The to I
Some critics, Mr. Edwards among them, doomed his candidacy, political sources say. , problem of. protecting critical technology is,
say othat the fa investigation ght in line He spent $40,000 of his own money, only to very serious," he says.
to something larger. "It's poor fourth. Voters "basically ignored Mr. Russoniello also is adopting a hard
with the (Reagan) administration's i sensi run a line on drug traffickers, and his intentions
twit} ? to minorities," he says. "They're try me," he says.
Despite h!s costly loss, the race did win sua vis the estimated 500 to 1,000 mari
ing to turn the clock back on civil rights."
Mr. Russoniel!o something important-Elie juana plantations of northern California are
Such. charges have been denied repeatedly notice of Republican. power brokers. G. Jo- ' sure to be controversial. "We have a $1.5
Cam billion Sinsemilla industry that is untaxed,
by the Justice Department. Rep. Peter seph Bertain Jr., a lawyer and longtime
dine, It chair ~, en of the Attorney eyrie General Wfl- Judiciary ary Reagan talent -spotter says: "I'd observed unmonitored and turning violent," he says,
Liam French wrote Smith h !ikenin~ M Mr. Ru Mr. Rusonson? Joe for 10 years, and he had impeccable ere- referring to a potent variety of marijuana
" dentials to be U.S. attorney." grown hereabouts. His sentence against pot
iello's search for aliens to an inquisition. farmers would be equally strong: land set-
rare. And while that might smack of Prohi-
bition, existing statutes provide for seizure
of assets in drug cases, and the prosecutor
believes it to be a strong deterrent.
CA1Y,-: V ED
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Wa4l4 aVNVa , F.,V ..
legations that Mr stories to rip your case apart."
The FBI's undercover investigation of al?
RussonieLo was in '? Mr. Russoniello
public his trial-expert- leged efforts of two Japanese computer.
ence on the e public c payroll into a job that led
d A M
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bi
hi
laced the equal-pro- ' 'S J attorney who often faced Mr. Russoniello in administration priorities; he intended to
faniinn 01ft"t-0 of rho court in the early 1970s. He says Mr. Rus- 1 pursue high-technology theft, Illicit drug
ney, a , lawsuit 45ty :v WUi I k- L coca aavut vyywaa.b raaa w uc aaaaucu c?aucnac.
charging that Mr. +~^ counsel. "He was a formidable opponent," Early in his tenure, Mr. Russoniello oua
Russonietio hail lio recalls Gilbert Eisenberg, a liberal defense .lined an agenda harmonious `with- Reagan
:
o
were voting in elec- meat law. c agar an r. 1 ~Y.,
the, "'Q . ~.. 1 they appreciate the prosecutor because he
lions, brought . Moving Stories takes an early and active role in the.invests 11
resignation of an as- y*" `y : . CMrw~ d.. awM a~f.,rnn,. i.n t -#I,,- -horn ni o wore .A A -,.4 --i-1-
He attracted international attention-by He spent his year with the FBI investi "Some U.S. attorneys prosecute only
acting against an alleged conspiracy to gating the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi.. But when they're sure they'll win." says William
transfer IBM computer secrets to Japan. such brushes with bigotry, if anything, stiff- Reagan, an FEZ special agent and a friend
thus winning points for the Reagan adminis- ened his conservatism. `'I'm hard-line on
two were in
tratlon in Silicon Valley. And he has enraged - law-and-order issues moderate on soda! is laofw Mr. school togetRussoniello'sher. 'But since the Mr. Russonielio
minority groups and civil-rights activists by sues," he says. , will take even a difficult case wand run with
looking for aliens among registered voters After his hitch with the FBI, he joined
sin nine California counties) who had re- the office of the San Francisco district attor it." Thomas Boyd, the special agent in
quested ballots in Spanish or Chinese. ney in 1967, where he attacked prostitution acharge of dds: "If the U.S. Customs Office here,
The racially selective investigation, un- and pimping in the city's Tenderloin brothel- adds: "If I take Joe evidence and he says
dertaker. to determine whether noncitizens hotels, invoking California's red-light abate- we can't prosecute, I know that nobody
D. A B
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b both
watched his performance Mafia ' t An Active Investigator