The Miami News, December 19, 1966, "Bosch, Aide Innocent of Extortion Charge" by Frank Murray.

Dr. Orlando Bosch and a top lieutenant have been found innocent here of charges they threatened death to other exiles if they did not contribute money to anti-Castro war funds.

Bosch, 40, a former pediatrician, and Marcelino Garcia [Jimenez], 55, were acquitted after eight hours deliberation by an all-male federal court jury which had been locked up during the seven-day trial. The trial continued over the weekend and the verdict was returned late last night.

Federal Judge Charles B. Fulton ordered the defendants discharged from bail.

Both men went on the witness stand and denied government charges that they mailed three extortion letters, followed up by telephone calls and personal visits to raise $21,000.

Bosch showed the jury a microphone and wires he said were found in the headquarters of the anti-Castro group he heads - Insurrectional Revolutionary Recovery Movement (MIRR). He said the office was bugged by federal officials.

An FBI documents examiner from Washington testified that a typewriter from Dr. Bosch's office in a hospital here was used to type one of the extortion letters. The defense produced an expert who said the letter could have been typed on a different machine.

One witness, Mrs. Roberto Mendoza, said Dr. Bosch was the mysterious voice who telephoned her many times, once threatening to burn her husband alive for working with the FBI.

Mendoza's office in the Seybold Building was burned, the $200,000 home of architect Alberto Vadia in Coral Gables was sprayed with bullets in a midnight raid and an unexploded bomb was found there, the plush island home of Julio Iglesias in Fort Lauderdale was bombed. All of the attacks took place during the fall of 1964 when the extortion attempts were underway.

There was never any question the extortion attempts were made, but the government was trying to prove Bosch and Garcia made them.

Bosch said he frequently asked wealthy exiles to contribute to this program of attacks on Castro's Cuba. He said he never used threats, however.

Bosch's attorney, Melvyn Greenspahn, had successfully argued against admission of possible identifications of Bosch by one witness and succeeded in showing that another had previously been unsure of her identification.

MIRR has often claimed successful raids by air and boat on the Castro regime.

Copyright (c) 1966 The Miami News