Judge Orders Release of Transcripts

PROVIDENCE--A Federal judge ruled yesterday that the public's right to know outweighs Raymond Patriarca's right to privacy and ordered the release of conversations taped in the office of the alleged crime boss.

Chief U.S. Court Judge Raymond J. Pettine's decision came on a suit filed in 1977 by the Providence Journal Company under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Pettine said his reading of parts of the 7000 pages of transcripts could be interpreted as "revealing a conspiratorial hierarchy of crime. Such activity is a legitimate subject of public interest and should be disclosed."

The judge ordered the Justice Department last summer to hand the tape transcripts over to him. The FBI taped the conversations in Patriarca's office, and has since conceded that the electronic eavesdropping was illegal.

The company, which publishes the morning Providence Journal and the Evening Bulletin, sought the files over Justice Department objections in the belief that they might show links between organized crime and Rhode Island government and business leaders.

Patriarca denied comment on the decision.

Pettine said he ordered the release of the information since it was unavailable from any other source. Courts should prefer the release of information, with confidential sections deleted, to issuing a blanket denial, he said.

William Kunstler argued on Petriarca's behalf that disclosing the information would "make a mockery of the Fourth Amendment," which prohibits illegal searches and seizures.