LOS ANGELES -- Attorneys for the accused killer of Vicki Morgan, the late Alfred Bloomingdale's mistress, subpoenaed the FBI and CIA for documents including 'any sex tapes' in which Edwin Meese or other government officials might appear, court documents revealed Tuesday.
Neither the FBI nor Meese's attorney had any information about the subpoenas, and Meese's lawyer, Leonard Garment, expressed outrage at the development in the case.
'I think that it's an absolutely outrageous story' to print, Garment said.
The subpoenas, filed by attorneys for defendant Marvin Pancoast, seek 'all documents, audio tapes, or videotapes depicting or relating to ... Vicki Morgan and presidential adviser Edwin Meese or any other government official presently employed on the White House staff or any U.S. senator or congressman.'
Meese is the president's nominee for attorney general but his nomination became snarled in the Senate Judiciary Committee over questions about his finances and about Meese family friends receiving federal jobs.
The subpoenas, also served on the custodian of records of the U.S. Treasury Department last October, asked for 'any 'sex tapes' (videotapes depicting sexual activity) showing pictures showing any of the above named individuals alone or with others.'
They also sought records of 'any government surveillance of the above named individuals.'
The 'individuals' cited are Meese, Miss Morgan, who was beaten to death in her apartment last July; Bloomingdale, a confidant of President Reagan; his wife, Betsy, a close friend of Nancy Reagan; and Gordon Basichis, a writer who defense attorneys described in court as a close friend of Miss Morgan.
The defense said, 'These documents are necessary to help prove that Marvin Pancoast is innocent and that others had a motive to want to kill Vicki Morgan.'
Other subpoenas seeking information in the case were filed on the Los Angeles Police Department, the Rancho La Costa country club and the Westwood Marquis Hotel. Bloomingdale was known to visit the latter two places during the five years before his death.
Meese's nomination as attorney general is being held up until a special prosecutor investigates all the charges against him. That investigation is not expected to be completed until close to the November presidential election.
Defense attorney Arthur Barens, who expressed surprise that the subpoenas had become public, told UPI Tuesday he has received various responses to the requests, but he refused to elaborate.
'We'll have more to say on this tomorrow (Wednesday),' he said.
The disclosures came during the first day of a pre-trial hearing on a defense motion to suppress five allegedly incriminating statements made by Pancoast after his arrest for Miss Morgan's slaying.
Police officer Keith Wong testified that Pancoast, a former talent agency clerk, came into the North Hollywood police station the morning of the slaying.
'I asked him if he was a witness and Mr. Pancoast said no, that he just killed someone ... and continued to tell me he did it with a baseball bat and that the victim was lying in an upstairs bedroom,' Wong said.
The confession was one of the statements in dispute. The others were made to two detectives, a jailer and a reporter for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.
Barens asked that the hearing either be closed to the news media or held after a jury is selected because of pre-trial publicity. Superior Court David Horowitz denied the request, saying much of the information has already been reported.
Pancoast, 33, has pleaded innocent and innocent by reason of insanity to first-degree murder in the death of Miss Morgan, 30.
Barens has said he expects to call as a defense witness attorney Robert Steinberg, who claimed he viewed videotapes showing Miss Morgan, Blomingdale and Reagan administration officials cavorting at sex parties. He later claimed the tapes had been stolen, and prosecutors filed charges accusing him of falsely reporting a theft.
Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt also claimed to have copies of the tapes.
Miss Morgan was killed one year after she filed an $11 million palimony suit against Bloomingdale, the department store heir and Diner's Club founder who died in August 1982. A judge later dismissed most of the suit, ruling Miss Morgan was in effect a well-paid prostitute.
