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angel he eee Abscam conviction ov erturned; * Juilge cites FBI’s ‘outra geousg oe whe _ techniques agains ls . Kelly =: ®. . By Robert Pear. 3 Unter Sa 5~ 2. _ New York Times News Sonise —- Sibee > WASHINGTON © A federal district judge’ yester- * day overturned the Abscam conviction of former Rep. _Richard Kelly, saying that the government had used “outrageous” techniques to induce the congressman _into accepting a $25,000 bribe. © 0 7 - Judge William B. Bryant said that agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation should have stopped importuning Kelly after he had rejected their initial bribe offers. Instead, the judge said, they persisted in applying pressure to the Florida Republican until he finally accepted the cash and stuffed it into his , pockets. . eo a - The government, in effect, was “testing the " virtue”-of Kelly when there was no reason to suspect ‘ his virtue, Bryant said, adding that the government had exceeded the outer limits of “fundamental fairness” 9 2 = eer Ee * - “Law enforcement exceeds its bounds when it “manufactures crime and creates criminals,” the judge said in his 25-page opinion.-’ *. “~~ an __ Bryant granted Kelly's request for a judgment of acquittal, overruling the guilty verdict returned by a jury on Jan. 26, 1981. Kelly had been convicted of bribery and conspiracy after a seven-week trial. He was the only Republican among the seven members Of . . Congress convicted on charges arising from the FBI's investigation of political corruption. ©... _ {When federal agents and informers first ap- prosched Kelly, “ment had even the remotest suspicion about the " exigjence of any prior, ongoing or imminent criminal ‘ activity of this type.” In other words, he said, “there -. “was nothing to trigger traditional law enforcement - activities until the government made its overtures.” _ vw {5 2 f/f SN ec ET A RT, Serr . ” ? OT NCATE TNO EN Ped ichard Kelly: Induced jnto a Bryant said, “no one in the govern- ~~ hard 9 $25,000? & eguyfaury “Government agents, hard aboat the évfioss f corrupting public officials who are free of suspicion, essentially subvert our government, and on its face this presents an unwholesome spectacie,” Bryant declared. “This is particularly true with respect to the way in which Kelly was handled.”" \ In St. Petersburg, Fla., Kelly reacted somberly yesterday to the reversal of his conviction, saying the FBI “did a super good job.of snookering everybody,” “| think the whole episode is a very. serio situation as far as the country is concerned. We n the FBI. We need to believe in the FBI,”. he said. “The most astounding thing is that they simp didn’t have any evidence at all... it was all created by - the FBI,”-said Kelly. =: - ee ee ‘ee wera cepti = co emer: oo er renanenneaese eee ns - SRE TE og TE ge co