judge lifts media ban in Martin • „ delays testimony CALLA.% Pftwis MAR 18 BY Richard Figh. Austin Bureau of The News FREDERICKSBURG, Texas — A state district judge Wednesday re- laxed his order banning the public from a pretrial hearing on felony perjury charges against state Rep. Mike Martin of Longview, but he nut off potentially explosive testi- aiony until Martin's trial begins ext month. Tuesday, Judge Robert Barton .arred reporters from hearing evi- . c:,.nce that he said might prejudice Martin's perjury trial. Martin is accused of staging for publicity a shotgun attack in which he was wounded, then lying to a grand jury about the incident. Reporters for several newspa- pers and broadcast media objected to closing the hearing. Barton agreed Wednesday to consider their contention that the media and public have a right to hear court proceedings unless it can be shown that the defendant's rights to a fair trial will be harmed. At the urging of Austin lawyer Jim George, who represented The Dallas Morning News and other me- dia, Barton issued a new order that allowed pretrial issues that did not involve testimony about whether Martin was lying to be discussed in open court. lie postponed any testi- mony that might prejudice poten- tial jurors until after a jury is se- lected in his scheduled April 19 trial. Prosecutors, who did not object Tuesday to the closing of the trial, - - - 1982 said they were delighted with the outcome of the media challenge, since it will keep Martin attorney Frank Maloney from examining any of their witnesses until the trial is ready to begin. The prosecutors had said Maloney wanted to use several of his pretrial issues — including a claim that the state had "en- trapped" Martin into committing perjury — as a way of learning what state witnesses would say be- fore the trial began. George said none of his media clients had asked for peeeponement of any issues in the pretrial hear- ing. He said he thought of that al- ternative himself, as a way of eas- ing the court past an impasse over the conflict between the right to public trials and the defendant's right to a fair trial. "The basic objective was to have the hearings held in public," George said after the judge agreed to hold back the sensitive issues until a jury can be chosen and sequestered away from news re- ports and broadcasts about the case. The decision sent more than a dozen state's witnesses home without testifying, and will force additional costs and inconvenience later in sequestering the jury, but George told the judge that conven- ience of the state was not a good enough reason to abridge constitu- tional rights and close the trial. Left without its more substan• - tive issues, the expected lengthy hearing drew quickly to a close Wednesday, as Barton overruled most points of Maloney's motion to have Martin's perjury indictment dismissed. One key element of that motion, the entrapment claim, will be considered at next month's trial with jurors out of the room. Martin's lawyers will want to ex- amine state witnesses then in an ef- fort to prove Martin was tricked into a grand jury appearance where he is charged with lying about the shooting. Maloney maintained that the Austin grand jury was not really in- vestigating a crime when it called Martin to testify about the shooting last August, and that the indict- ment charging him with perjury was defective. Barton turned down his pleas and also refused to require pro- secutors to seek out and deliver to defense lawyers any criminal re- cords that might exist for Charles Goff, Donny Goff and James Grant. Charles Goff, :',1artin's cousin, said he was hired by Martin to slightly wound the lawmaker with shotgun fire in a play for political sympathy. Grant has told investiga- tors that Martin earlier had ap- proached him with a similar scheme, but that he rejected it. As the case stands now, Martin will be facing a jury in Gillespie County at the same time he will be facing voters in his home district in Gregg County seeking- the Re- publican nomination to continue as their legislator. Clements calls for tax repeal POS T By CARL EOOPER Post Real Estate Writer MAR 1 8 1982 Gov. Bill Clements will propose a major suite water program to the Texas Legislature at its regular session starting in January 1983, he told Houston Realtors Wednesday at their first annual Realtor Rally at the Sham- rock Hilton Hotel. Clements, now seeking re-election, gave no details of the proposal, commenting 9nly that a watis-r. Shortage will sooinc orobioen for the state urinal ti taken. Jef • He also called for repealing the property tax now levied by the state. "I plan to pro- pose the necessary legislation early next year," he said. "And Texans will face, a tax bill for $480 million in property taxes unless repeal is voted in 1983." Clements said a study ordered by his administration shows that the Texas popula- tion will increase 50 percent from 14 million under the federal census of 1980 to a project- ed total of 21 million in the year 2000. Our population is now the third largest in the Union but should be second behind Cali- fornia in 2000," he said. "And our growth be- tween now and then should cause us to pass New York. "About 170,000 new jobs will need to be created for our economy every year from now until the end of the century," the gover- nor told the Realtors. "And that means the industrial base for our job market must keep growing to accommodate an ever larger number of Texans. "It also OWN 'a Vowing demitialler food, or • tber reit eetlite,- eatibeis, law eatoreement * and many other things needed by our citi- zens. All these needs must be met without sacrificing the quality of life. And our prob- lems can and will be solved with less govern- menton4 withoutMpeading on Washisettx." Clements noted that the state taxes neither personal nor corporate income and has levied no new tax in 10 years, but also gets 26 per- cent of its revenue from a declining volume of oil and gas produced in Texas. "Texas oil production went dawn by 705,* 000 barrels a day or 21 percent during the 1970s," he said. "And the same decade wit- nessed a decline of 6 percent or 61/2 billion cubic feet a day in amount of natural gas produced by Texans." Clements thanked the Realtors for en- dorsement of his candidacy by the Texas Real Estate Political Action Committee. "TREPAC came out for my opponent hack is 1978," he reoalled. "And the support pro- vided thisettateis all thermic* welcome." The govertioCattleoted the work done by his administration and said he is proud of; . raising teacher pay, trimming the state pay- roll and vetoing spending hills. "I'm for bilin- gual education," he said, "but I don't want Texas to become a two-language state like C40A1 U.S. District Judge -William Wayne Jus- tice, who has ordered extensive improve- ments in state prisons, thus prompting the temporary use of prison tenth, drew fire from the governor for what was described as unjustified interference in state government. "Judge Justice is a misnomer," Clements quipped. "And we've got some extra tents we an offer the mayor of Houston."'