n502  2221  11 Feb 81
BC-2FALN-02-12
    By Betty Washington
    (c) 1981 Chicago Sun-Times (Field News Service)
    CHICAGO - Ten members of the Puerto Rican terrorist group FALN have
been convicted in U.S. District Court here of conspiring to overthrow
the government and violating weapons regulations.
    The jury of 11 women and one man deliberated for only two hours
Wednesday before returning the verdicts in the courtroom of Judge
Thomas R. McMillen, who presided at the six-day trial.
    McMillen set sentencing for next Wednesday.
    The defendants refused to participate in the trial, saying they did
not recognize the right of the United States to bring charges against
them.
     During the trial, they were held in the 24th-floor marshal's lockup
in the Dirksen Federal Building, three floors above the courtroom.
Audio equipment was installed in their cells to enable them to hear
court proceedings.
    On Wednesday, when the verdict was returned, the 10 remained in the
Metropolitan Correctional Center and were provided with audio
equipment.
    Eleven members of FALN (Armed Forces for National Liberation), a
group seeking independence for Puerto Rico, were arrested last April
4 in north suburban Evanston. One of the 11, Marie Torres, was
convicted last year of a New York bombing that resulted in the death
of one person and was sentenced to life in prison.
    Those convicted Wednesday are Carlos Alberto Torres, 28, who is
Marie's husband and the alleged ringleader of the group; Dylcia
Pagan, 34; Carmen Valentin, 34; Ricardo Jiminez, 24; Elizam Escobar,
32; Ida Luz Rodriguez, 30; Luis Rosa, 21; Alfredo Mendez, 27; Elicia
Rodriguez, 29, and Adolfo Matos, 30.
    The jury heard evidence about 28 bombings or attempted bombings in
the Chicago area between 1975 and 1979. Thirty-four government
witnesses testified, and evidence presented included boxes of
weapons, ammunition and parts of explosive devices.
    Several Evanston police officers testified about how a van
containing nine of the FALN members was taken into custody about
three blocks from the home of industrialist Henry Crown. The
government contends that the group planned to kidnap Crown and other
business and banking officials, including members of the Rockefeller
family.
    Thomas C. Deans, an FBI specialist in terror bombings, identified in
court numerous bomb fragments, broken watch parts, batteries and
exploded propane tanks recovered from the sites of several bombings
and attempted bombings in the Chicago area.
    During his half-hour closing argument on Wednesday, Assistant U.S.
Attorney Jeremy Margolis said the defendants had engaged in
''despicable acts.''
    ''They don't care about the law and they don't care about human
life,'' he said.
    McMillen thanked the jurors and commended the prosecutors, Margolis
and Walter Jones, and agents of the FBI. But he told the jurors that
they were not to reveal the identities of their fellow jurors because
''there is no belief that all of the individuals (in FALN) have been
apprehended, by any means.''
    END
    
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