Special to the JTA Judge Rebuffs Efforts to Learn Status of Brief on Hazners

Immigration and Naturalization Service judge Anthony DeGaeto, who is deciding the case of accused Nazi war criminal Vilis Hazners, rebuffed efforts by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to learn the status of the final brief of Ivars Berzins, Hazners’ attorney.

Hazners, a native of Latvia who lives in ?state Dresden, New York, has been facing deportation proceedings in Albany and New York City since 1977 for allegedly failing to disclose his Nazi past upon entrance to this country in 1956.

A JTA reporter who called seven days ago to ask whether the Berzins brief had been filed was told by DeGaeto in harsh and angry words that be absolutely refused to discuss the case. When the reporter explained that the call was not to discuss the case, but merely to ascertain whether Hazners’ attorney had filed his brief, the judge said “Take that up with my secretary” and then immediately slammed down the phone. A call to his secretary soon afterward yielded the reply that only the judge could give out the information.

According to a member of the Justice Department’s Special Investigation Unit, the unit received a copy of Berzins’ brief on Aug. 16. which indicated that it had also been filed with DeGaeto.

Government attorneys Martin Mendel sohn and Robert Boylan filed their brief against Hazners on June 11 and mailed a copy to Berzins on June 15. He then had 30 days to reply, but DeGaeto granted him an extension.

REFUSES TO POSTPONE HEARING

DeGaeto did not, however, yield to government requests to postpone the Hazners hearing last spring so that an important government witness could testify. Originally scheduled for April 4, the hearing had been postponed until May 17 so that this witness from West Germany could appear.

An expert on Latvian forces during World War II, he was unable to be here on the May date because he was in Sweden working on another Nazi criminal case for the West German government. DeGaeto refused to reschedule a second time. A deposition was taken instead and the hearing was closed. Now that briefs have been filed by both sides, DeGaeto’s decision is expected in from two to six months.

When Israeli witnesses, formerly from Latvia, were testifying through an interpreter in the fall of 1977, members of the Albany Jewish community criticized DeGaeto for a comment that he made from the beach. When a witness didn’t understand the defense attorney’s question and asked what he meant, DeGaeto said to the lawyer and the courtroom that it’s a trait of Jews to always answer questions with questions.