Word: murtagh
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...been called a pig once too often," said New York Supreme Court Justice John M. Murtagh last week. With that he recessed the pretrial hearings of 13 Black Panthers accused of plotting to blow up department stores, police stations and the New York Botanical Garden. Murtagh's ire was understandable. For 13 days the defendants directed streams of verbal vitriol at the bench and the prosecuting attorneys, bringing courtroom proceedings to a virtual standstill. Murtagh's solution: let the Panthers cool off in jail until they agree in writing to follow the traditional rules of courtroom decorum...
...defendants, 13 Black Panthers in coarse working clothes. Glowering, hooting, they yelled and swore, keeping up a desultory cacophony of epithets, calling the judge and Phillips "fascists," "pigs" and "racists." In the audience behind them, Panther supporters in Afro haircuts, shawls and dashikis joined in the sporadic bedlam, ridiculing Murtagh's determined calls for order. Shouted one defendant, Richard Moore: "This is nothing but an electric circus, a racist Babylon!" Twice fights broke out, and one woman was cited for contempt of court...
...arson. The defendants were originally known as "the Panther 21," but some are being tried separately, others are already in jail on convictions for other crimes. Most have been in solitary confinement since their arrest April 2, unable to raise the bail of up to $100,000 set by Murtagh...
Neither side made any effort to conceal its disdain for the other. Murtagh, a stern former prosecutor, showed little patience with the six long-haired, modishly attired young lawyers with limited trial experience. He hurried their questions, curtly denied their motions, and dropped hints that he will hold the lawyers in contempt for their clients' outbursts...
...stood up, apparently to walk to the defense counsel's table. When two guards tried to restrain him, Tabor swung at a guard and missed, and a scuffle followed. The next day, a melee broke out after a white spectator, MaryAnn Weissman, 31, stood up and yelled at Murtagh: "Who judges your conduct?" When guards tried to eject her, a brawl broke out and swept into the corridor. Two defendants, two guards and one detective were injured. Richard Moore charged that he had had his "head dribbled on the floor like a basketball." Lonnie Epps, 18, a defendant free...