February 7, 1984

10 FROM PUERTO RICO POLICE INDICTED IN COVER-UP OF '78 KILLINGS

By REGINALD STUART

(SAN JUAN, P.R.) Ten current and former officers of Puerto Rico's police force were indicted today on Federal charges of conspiring to cover up the beating and shooting of two young activists in 1978.

The deaths of Arnaldo Dario Rosado, 24 years old, and Carlos Soto Arrivi, 18, both advocates of independence for Puerto Rico, had
become a cause cel ebre, generating bitter controversy throughout the island and bringing televised hearings from the Commonwealth
Senate. It had also become a point of vigorous contention between the two dominant political parties here.

The 44-count indictment included charges of perjury in two previous Federal investigations, destruction of evidence and obstruction of
justice.

The charges stem from a 1978 confrontation between police officers staked out at Cerro Maravilla, a mountain in the Toro Negro
State Forest on the south side of the island, and the two young men, members of a five-person group called the Armed Revolutionary
Movement. The police said the suspects were on their way to sabotage a television transmission tower on the mountain.

Carlos Romero Barcelo, the two- term pro-statehood Governor, who is seeking election to a third term this year, has stood behind the
police department's assertions that the shootings were in self-defense.

Governor Under Pressure

The opposition Popular Democratic Party, which controls the Legislature, has made the Governor's position the focal point of its
efforts to defeat him. Last year the party began its own inquiry through Commonwealth Senate hearings into charges of wrongdoing
by the police and officials of Puerto Rico's Justice Department.

The Governor's standing in opinion polls has fallen significantly in the past year, political analysts here say.

Three Attorneys General left Governor Romero Barcelo's cabinet in less than six months last year. All had disputes with the Governor
over their support of legislative calls for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate charges of wrongdoing by Government
officials.

In an interview last summer, Governor Romero Barcelo characterized the Commonwealth Senate hearings as ''a political circus'' and
accused the opposition party of trying to implicate him unfairly.

Governor Says He Is Glad

Today, the Governor said he was glad the five-year case was going to court. ''Our position has always been clear,'' he said, ''that if
there is any evidence of violation of the law, either by private citizens or Government officials, in connection with the Cerro Maravilla
case, the full weight of the law should fall on those found guilty.''

Meanwhile, the Senate President, who supervised the Senate investigation, said it was regrettable that the Federal Government, not the
Commonwealth, had taken the initiative in bringing charges against the police.

The people named in the indictment were being arrested by Federal and Commonwealth police tonight.

One count charged all 10 defendants with conspiring from July 25, 1978, the date of the killings, until Dec. 16, 1983, to prevent
law-enforcement authorities from learning what actually happened.

Charges Are Detailed

The indictment said the 10 defendants - seven suspended police officers, two who are on disability leave and one who resigned -
conspired to obstruct justice, to obstruct a criminal investigation, to give false testimony before a grand jury and in depositions, to
induce witnesses to perjure themselves, to intimidate grand jury witnesses and to destroy and alter evidence.

The other counts in the indictment charged perjury, false declarations before a grand jury and subornation of perjury. Each of the
criminal counts carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

On the night of the Cerro Maravilla killings, the two activists were accompanied by police undercover agents who had alerted the
police. They rode in a taxi that the undercover agents had seized from its driver.

The original police accounts said that the two men were surprised by the police upon their arrival and began shooting, with the police
returning fire in self-defense.

The story began to unravel when three policemen testified before the Senate committee, in closed hearings, that the two men had
surrendered unhurt after a brief exchange of gunfire. The officers testified that the two were then beaten and shot.

Their testimony was repeated in open a few days later in hearings that were broadcast over television as part of the Senate's stated
intent to let the public judge who was being honest about Cerro Marravilla.

As the hearings proceeded into the early summer, Hector Reichard, who was appointed Attorney General after the shootings, was
conducting an internal investigation of his own. It resulted in a series of reassignments, demotions and resigations among top officials,
including the deputy attorney general who conducted the first Cerro Maravilla investigation.

United States Attorney Daniel Lopez Romo said the grand jury was still investigating and would not conclude its actions until June.

The 10 indicted today were Lieut. Nelson Gonzalez Perez, who has resigned; Rafael Torres Marrero and Luis Reveron Martinez, who
are on disability leave; and Officer Nazario Mateo Espada, Col. Angel Perez Casillas, Lieut. Jaime Quiles Hernandez, Rafael Moreno
Morales, Juan Bruno Gonzalez, William Colon Berrios and Jose Rios Polanco, all of whom have been suspended.