Newsday (Suffolk Edition) du lieu suivant : Melville, New York • 15

The Crash Of a Rising Legal Star By Robert Kessler The diinpwraiwe of narcotics and $20000 in cadi from the office of the UJ3 attorney in had been under a "low-key investigation for four before the discovery May 26 that a large quantity of- drugs was missing abruptly triggered a foil-scale That probe led to the arrest Thursday of an assistant UJS attorney Daniel Perlmutter 29 who was once considered a rising star in the Justice Department and is now under a suicide watch at the Metropolitan Correctional Center adjoining his former office Perlmutter has been charged with stealing 18 pounds ofcocaine and 9 ounces heroin worth as much as $500000 from a safe used to hold evidence Most of the narcotics were from cases he was involved in proe-' ecuting including one in which two police officers nave been arrested A bail hearing was set for today Perlmutter had been seriously depressed recently a condition his defense attorneys acquaintances and in- vestigators attribute to the acrimonious breakup of his second marriage in December and what they say waa the subsequent development of severe cocaine abuse UJS Attorney Rudolph Giuliani says the investigs- tion is continuing into whether the drugs were sold or were for personal use only One of the defense attorneys Ronald Fiachetti free- ly acknowledges that his diant has "a severe cocaine But Fiachetti says his client never sold any drugs The arrest of Perlmutter was not only a personal misfortune but also sent sent shock waves through the federal' law-enforcement community where assistant UJB attorneys are often viewed as a priesthood of hard-' driving very bright incorruptible relatively low-paid lawyers devoted to enforcing federal law Perlmutter was earning $41000 a year And the most prestigious of all UJS offices has long been considered the Southern District of New York whose 131 lawyers cover Manhattan the' Bronx and several upstate counties As a result of arrest Giuliani called three staff meetings last week to boost morale like a death of a dose friend has Giuliani said i "You have to understand this office Judges and other alumni have been calling to commiserate a professional tragedy for them and to many friends and colleagues a professional and a personal Until the investigation last week offidals had not been aware of the foil extent of the losses in drugs or money nor are they saying at this point that Ferlmut-1 ter is responsible for all orthe mA and drugs Several law-enforcement 7Wmilir with the situation said that small quantities of cocaine and heroin and the $20000 in a $4000 and a $16000 package were found to be missing over the last four Former Brooklyn Dodger Clem Labine signs autographs outside Gage Tollner rpstaurant Another Age Relived Abrams was still fit Mickey Owens still had the baseball catcher's executioner's eye And Billy Loes was still a down The waiters having served the dinner stood in the back of the restaurant and narrated The waiters with white hair told the younger waiters who they were looking at could eat three or four Said one waiter "And on the nights when they won the tips were always young waiter had his arms crossed skeptically across his chest "You don't know who you are looking said one of the veterans one of those who -served them when they were Brooklyn Dodgers and quick and young "I was never corrected Maglie in his bad-bqy style There was a dinner and there were speeches Carl Erskine told how he had raised his chil- dren in Brooklyn By the time they were old enough to enter school he had returned to his native Indiana "They put my youngest boy Gary in a remedial speech he said Borough President Howard Golden worked the room He kept introducing himaelfl "How do you do My nameis Howard Golden I'm the borough president of And then one of staff would move people around for a picture Golden kept talking about bringing the Dodgers back but no one believed him "Too said one of the former ball- players "I Looked at the street It was never this dirty when we were playing here But don't quote A tall man stood aside Unlike the others he wore no name tag But he didn't need one Everyone knew Ralph Branca "I used to bring you peanuts in the said Bob Herman son grabbing arm "Remember? Td load up my jackets with peanuts and slip them into the bullpen for all the "Don't go around telling said Branca It seemed such an innocent thing smuggling peanuts in the bullpen given the dnu traffic alleged now among major league ballplayers But Branca felt a pang of guilt all the same And the others in the room nad an endearing trait of hiding their drinks when the cameras turned to them They come from another age By Ken Gross Brooklyn At Gage Tollner a man comes out every day with along taper and lights the gas lamps in the chandeliers a nice touch a TwminrW that this is a landmark restaurant 102 years old with reverence for things past The players used to come to Gage A Tollner in downtown Brooklyn after games when Eb-' betts Field was just down the road and the Dodgers were the pride of Brooklyn And this weekend they held a dinner for the old Dodgers there at Gage Tollner under the dim flickering gas lamps where you could almost forget time and distance Bill Merriwether is a waiter there He has worked at Gage ft Tollner for 41 years "I knew them he said They didn't recognise him at first as he walked among them with his tray of chicken livers Merriwether is 72 years old now His hair is white But after he had completed his rounds he stopped by a table 'liello Mister he said Sal Maglie looked up Suspicious Maglie is still a rough and hard-eyed case but he smiled and stood and held the outstretched hand of Merriwether in two of his own "How are said Maglie They stood for a moment silently taking the measure of all that had passed since they had last seen each other It was a common thing All over the room old men were looking for the boys of summer "You know you look at the guys and they seem said Carl Erskine who has white hair no "But you have to see them at the Old games You have to see them when they put on a uniform and get out on the field They still have the moves They pick up a bat and they still have all the He shook his head having seen an amazing thing about former athletes they still have the moves The players fell into each other's arms They backslapped end kidded each other about the absence of hair or the presence of flab But it was with an old affection that could stand such jibes Thqy had been through baseball wars and knew each other well Babe Herman sat and accepted the tributes of those who came to honor him He was being inducted into the Dodger Hall of Fame His children sat bgaming nearby Some things change nd some don't Cal The lock was changed several times to combat what was at first thought to be merely an embarrassing situation Only four staff members were given the combination to the safe a large steel box mine than 100 years old Perlmutter was not one of tiuwn He is suspected of having stolen the combination from the desk of one of the other attorneys according to law-enforcement sources NEWSOAY MONDAY JUNE 3 1885 OI Daniel Perlmutter was considered one of the even within the elite group of US attorneys in the Southern District In Just five months Perlmutter had gone from pros-' editing the least serious federal offenses into the 20- Wmfr narcotics unit a promotion that usually takaa as long as two years to win It turned out to be the end of a career that had started at Williams College in Massachusetts where Perlmutter who grew up in West Orange majored in He earned a Phi Beta Kappa key graduated magna cum laude in 1977 then entered New York University Law School Burt Neubornethen a professor at the law school and now legal director of the American Civil liberties Union remembers Perlmutter looked like he had a terrific grades were excellent and he- was elected research editor of the law review Laura Smith inanuMT nt tha mviawr ramamhars Perlmutter as hard-working straight anew who was the apple of his "He was very handsome and a lot of the women Continued on Page 21 I it- i.