The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 10

10A THE PALM BEACH POST SUNDAY, JANUARY 18, 1987 IMPORTANT ESTATE AUCTION I Momentum builds for ouster of federal prosecutor Merkle QHJ INCLUDING PROPERTIES FROM The Boca Raton Estate ot ROBERT C. GREENFIELD The Palm Beach Estate ot BARON ARNDT KRUPP von B0HLEN und HALBACH The Personal Collection of Dr. and Mrs. JOSEPH W. SIMC0 And Properties From Various Other Consignors FEATURING: Paintings and Watercolors by: Edna Hlbel, Paul Jenkins, Charles Gruppe, J.N.

Sartorius, Anthony Thieme, E.H. Osthaus, R. Geiger, C. Artz, A. Borel, J.

Delbos, J.C. Hook Important Russian Works ol Art Antique and 20th Century Furniture Fine American, English and Continental Sliver Meissen, Dresden, Minion, Limoges and Vienna Porcelains Chinese and Japanese Porcelains, Ivory Carvings, Bronzes and Cloisonne Enamels Collection ol Leather Bound Books Fine Estate Diamond Rings, Bracelets and Other Gold Jewelry Hand Woven Oriental Carpets Fine and Decorative Bronze Sculptures Four Chandeliers Sterling Flatware Sets Fine Cut Crystal Pair of Outstanding Rococo Style Mirrors Clocks, And Much-Much More PUBLIC AUCTION: Jan. 22, at 8 p.m. Fit, Jan. 23, at 8 p.m.

Jan. 24, at 1 p.m. PUBLIC EXHIBITION Jan. 21, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Jan. 22, From 12 Noon to 8 p.m. Fri. Jan. 23, From 12 Noon to 8 p.m.

ft I I I I ti Important and Exquisite Pair ol Fabarge Silver-Gilt Candle Stocks No Buyer's Premium Arthur James Galleries Catalogue $3.00 615 EAST ATLANTIC DELRAY BEACH, FLA. Phone 278-2373 When it Comes OPEN WEEKNIGHTS SATURDAY SUNDAY to SAVING MONEY People Come to And that's why we have such a good record." Merkle, the son of an Air Force doctor, spent much of his childhood in the Maryland suburbs of Washington before his father settled in Easley, S.C., in the 1950s. Merkle said his father was the only physician in town who would treat blacks. Because of this, the elder Merkle and the family often were objects of scorn in an era of prevelant racism. "I saw a lot of unfairness firsthand growing up," Merkle said.

A star athlete Merkle is 6-feet-2 and weighs more than 200 pounds he won a football scholarship to Notre Dame, where he played until sidelined by injury before his senior year. Merkle went on the earn his law degree at Notre Dame and he planned on entering private practice until a professor approached him with a lead on a job at the Justice Department as part of an expanding drug crackdown unit. Merkle later spent 11 years as an assistant state prosecutor in the Pinellas County State Attorney's Office before returning to the Justice Department as a fraud attorney. In 1982, Hawkins and the president tapped him for U.S. attorney.

He lives with his wife and nine children in Clearwater. A devout Catholic, Merkle has spoken out against abortion, but he denies that in 1983 he quizzed applicants for jobs in his office on their views. Merkle also brushes aside oft-told stories in Tampa of a shouting match he entered last year at his son's high school wrestling match and that he threatened a sheriff's deputy who fined him for speeding. Other larger-than-life anecdotes have emerged about Merkle most of which he denies but which nevertheless have become legends among Tampa's legal and political community. But virtually unchallenged by critics and supporters alike is Mer-.

kle's prosecutorial talent fti the courtroom, his ability to use an icy stare and a low monotone voice to tear apart a witness under cross-examination. "He's a fearless prosecutor," said one of his assistants who spoke on the condition that his name not be used. "I don't think he's intimidated by anybody. But he definitely intimidates others and witnesses on the stand. That's a strength and it can be a weakness.

"What makes him tick? The belief justice is being served. That he is right and the other guy the defense attorney, the defendant isn't." "He is very seriously oriented toward routing out crime and particularly corruption in the political system," said state Sen. Curt Kiser, R-Palm Harbor. "The question is, in pursuing that goal, has he exercised a sufficient amount of restraint in the cases and allegations he brings?" Martinez has prompted the White House and U.S. senators Lawton Chiles and Bob Graham to investigate the question.

Merkle said he approached his job evenhandly and continued to enjoy the confidence of Reagan and the Justice Department. But lighting a cigarette and propping his feet on a coffee table in his office, he turned uncharacteristically introspective about his current problem. "I could walk away from the job tomorrow," he said. "I've never looked for a lot of money or anything else. Something will come up.

I'll be all right. I've got nine kids at home and I know they're my friends." MERKLEfrom 1A and newspaper editorials calling for Merkle, a Republican appointed by the Reagan administration in 1982, to be replaced. Foremost among those seeking Merkle's ouster is Florida's new Republican governor, Bob Martinez, whom Merkle accused of lying to a jury when he took the stand this month in a Tampa corruption trial. The feud reached its peak when Martinez contacted White House officials last week, setting in motion an informal administration inquiry into Merkle's methods and performance. In his avid quest to root out corruption, his critics contend, Merkle has needlessly smeared honest ejected officials and others.

In a recent editorial calling for pwp to be fired, the St. Petersburg 'Times said Merkle's actions had gone "beyond the bizarre to the outrageous." John M. "Mac" Stipanovich, a Tampa attorney before becoming Martinez's chief political adviser, icalls Merkle "the man my civics teacher warned me about." Burly and stern-faced with close-cropped hair, Merkle, 42, marches down the steps of Tampa's federal courthouse looking like a drill sergeant in a blue suit. A former Pinellas County assistant state attorney and Justice Department prosecutor, he returned to the Tampa Bay area five years ago after receiving the appointment with the help of Paula Hawkins, then the state's junior U.S. senator.

"He has done a good job and is doing a good job. There are still a lot of people around here who want to see him stay," said Bill Kincaid, a prominent Republican businessman from Tampa. "It's a tough job cleaning up a town like this that's been dirty for so long. It's hard not to ruffle feathers." His exploits have created popular support in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area.

Tampa Bay area radio talk shows were deluged last week with calls from supporters. A group of citizens has mounted a petition drive they believe will net 5,000 signatures by Monday, which they intend to forward to Attorney General Edwin Meese and Florida's congressional delegation. But the pressure is mounting on Merkle and he feels it. He took his case to the public in a news conference Thursday, defending his record as a prosecutor of public corruption. It was not an unusual move for Merkle, who has answered criticism from federal judges with letters to newspapers and often is a guest on radio and television talk shows.

"When I'm the one being accused, how plausible are my denials?" Merkle said in an interview at his fourth-floor office in the Federal Building. "It's an 'Are you still beating your situation. That's why I went to the press." Although he has brought charges against public officials in Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa, who later have been exonerated, Merkle claims an above-average success rate of convictions. Asked why he became a prosecutor and he pauses for several beats before replying simply, "I like the whole concept of fairness." But critics say his insinuations have maliciously implicated others in the cases he pursues. Martinez, the former Tampa mayor, was drawn into the mail-fraud trial of a once-prominent Tampa Democratic Party leader when a prosecution witness accused him in court documents, and later in trial testimony, of accepting illegal checks and cash to assist JraPlTOL "America's Best Carpet Buys' U.S.

Attorney Robert C. Merkle: 'I like the concept of a cable television company seeking a city franchise. In five hours of testimony, Martinez repeatedly denied the allegation. In his closing arguments, Merkle said the new governor lied under oath. Merkle won his case, convicting Nelson Italiano in the scheme.

But many say he went too far implicating Martinez, who has not been charged with any crimes. "Anybody who has the name 'mad dog' that's what Reagan calls Gadhafi. That's as bad as it gets," said Barry Cohen, a Tampa defense lawyer who is perhaps the most vociferous, self-avowed enemy of Merkle. "We need aggressive prosecutors. But not the kind who hurt people the way he does." Cohen represented former Hillsborough County State Attorney E.J.

Salcines, a subject in a three-yearlong special grand jury probe of Tampa corruption. The grand jury disbanded last year without indicting Salcines, who consistently denied the allegations and was supported by top Democratic officials. Yet the implication of wrongdoing cost Salcines his job in 1984 when he failed to win a fifth term. Complaints by Cohen and Hillsborough County Sheriff Walter Heinrich prompted an internal Justice Department investigation. The department's Office of Professional Responsibility found charges that Merkle had abused witnesses and prompted them to lie were "unsubstantiated without exception." A similar state investigation also cleared Merkle.

In four years, Merkle's forays against corruption netted convictions of four Hillsborough County commissioners through trials and plea-bargain agreements. "We have gotten in this office, just in Hillsborough County, 14 people convicted, two corporations and 25 other individuals, prominent individuals, to come in and admit they were participating in bribes. That's a heck of an accomplishment, even if there were a number of acquittals in one big trial," Merkle said. Twenty-five people, including Italiano, were indicted by the special federal grand jury in 1985. Only seven have been convicted, two remain to be tried.

The remainder were acquitted or charges were dropped. Critics claim Merkle brought unfounded charges and leaked to the press implications of wrongdoing that did not exist. Respected Jacksonville State Attorney Ed Austin, whose office was the subject of Merkle's scrutiny, has called Merkle, "the reincarnation of Joe McCarthy." "It is totally irrelevant," Merkle said of the derision. "We just don't go off recklessly making charges. SMILE tS 0IFF America's Best Carpet Buys Now Available in the Palm Beaches SUPER BUYS FROM AMERICA'S MOST FAMOUS MILLS ON SALE ALEXANDER SMITH QUEEN GALAXY WORLD SALEM PHILADELPHIA HORIZON ALADDIN MONTANA PEPPERELL GAYLA SOUTHLAND FLOORS COPPER CAIN BULTMAN STAINMASTER ALLIED'S ANSON IV MONSANTO ULTRON DUPONT ANTRON AND MANY, MANY MORE.

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19, 1807. Participants planned to feast on Southern foods, such as country-smoked ham and sweet potato pie, in the elegant surroundings of the Secretary's Courtyard in the Agriculture Department. About 250 people were expected to attend the $80-a-couple affair. Proceeds benefit the museum and library of the Confederate Memorial Association. The Associated Press WASHINGTON Gentlemen dressed in Confederate gray and ladies in antebellum gowns kept alive the memory of the Old South Saturday night in what was once a hostile capital.

Period dancing to the strains of Stephen Foster melodies played on antique instruments was the order of the evening at a formal ball commemorating Gen. Robert E. Lee, who was born 180 years ago on SUNSHINE SQUARE CORNER OF WOOLBRIGHT RD. FEDERAL BOYNTON BEACH MON. THRU FRI.

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