The Nation - News from Dec. 11, 1987

A federal prosecutor in Jacksonville, Fla., identified fugitive businessman Robert L. Vesco as a co-conspirator in the cocaine-smuggling trial of Carlos Lehder Rivas. U.S. District Judge Howell W. Melton allowed a witness to testify about a 1980 meeting with Vesco after U.S. Atty. Robert Merkle argued that details of Vesco’s conversation constituted “co-conspirator’s testimony.” The defense had tried to get the testimony disallowed as hearsay. Merkle did not elaborate on his allegation in court. But the witness, Charles Kehm, testified that Vesco told him to “keep my nose out of other people’s business” when he mentioned trouble he was having with Lehder.