Hearst lied about gun, Gort witness says

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34093, 4 March 1976, Page 13

Hearst lied about gun, Gort witness says

f.V Z Press Assn—Copyright) SAX FRANCISCO, March 3. The first Government rebuttal witness in the trial of the newspaper heiress. Patricia Hearst, has contradicted her story that she took part in a bank robbery without knowing if the gun she carried tvas loaded or could fire. Mr Sigurd Berzins, a 33-year-old electronics tech-

tnician. said yesterday that he had seen a woman drop two Ml carbine ammunition clips and two cartridges in front of the door to the Sunset :branch of the Hibernia Bank. :and watched her pick them up from the pavement. He ■had seen a gun a-- it protruded from the long, dark' coat and dropped to thei pavement as she knelt. | He had not seen the 'woman’s face he said. He had seen only what he insisted was a feminine I form, the top of a head covered with reddish blond or | auburn hair, the feminine fingers picking up the am- ; munition, the clips, and the i gun. I .H.I. questions Then the robbery had taken place, he said, and he was face-to-face — “eyeball to eyeball " — with a woman with a carbine who ordered him to get down to the floor. Mr Berzins said that on April 16, 1974. the day after the bank robbery for which Hearst is on trial, he had seen pictures in the “San Francisco Chronicle" and the “San Francisco Examiner." and deduced that it was Patricia Hearst he had seen scrambling to pick up the .ammunition from the pave;ment. Hearst’s father. Mr RanIdolph Hearst, is president of I the “Examiner" and chairman of the board of d net

t'tors of the Hearst Corpcr- > ation. Soon after Mt 1 Lee I Bailey . H. at -• s < hief defence counsel, began to , cross-examine him. Mr Bet zins was led into an exam ination of reports by agents :of the federal Bureau of Intvestigation on their inter iviews with him on April 1.7 and April 16. 1974. In those reports, the agents attributed to him identifications and accounts that did not square 'with his testimony yestcrI day. S.L A. rolr i The witness said, with re spect to some areas of .conflict, that the agents had I misunderstood him and. a Ito others, that after he had I seen the newspaper pictures, his recollections fell into place tn the order related tn his testimony’. i The testimony was seen aof major importance because it contradicted Hearst's te-ti-'monj. Throughout the trial, rhe defence has contended tn explanation of n< . presence in the robbery, that she had been coerced by the :■ self-styled Symbinnese I. b I eration Army, whose mem hers kidnapped her on I < b ruary 4. 1974. and held hei I prisoner This position males ex jtremely important any ev >. dence that would effectively show that Hearst played a rote other than that of a docile captive