New Wideman Trial Reaffirmed By Judge

 Inmate RobertWideman, brother of prominent author John Edgar Wideman, will get a new trial in a 1975 criminal homicide, an Allegheny County judge ruled Monday.

 After a five-hour hearing, Judge James R. McGregor reaffirmed his preliminary ruling of Oct. 29, granting a new trial in the robbery-slaying of Nick Morena, 24.

 Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Spangler had failed to prove that the prosecution would be harmed by the 22-year delay in retrying the case, McGregor ruled.

 The defense had presented testimony of two medical witnesses that suggested the victim died because of mistakes by emergency room doctors who treated the bullet wound in his back.

 Wideman, who wasn't the shooter, was convicted of second-degree murder and is serving a life term. The victim was shot Nov. 15, 1975, at Morena Auto Sales on Route 51 in Overbrook, where Wideman and two other defendants allegedly went to sell stolen TV sets.

 The gunman, Michael Dukes, is serving a life term for second-degree murder. A third defendant, Cecil Rice, served time for third-degree murder and was paroled.

 "You are going to get a new trial, Mr. Wideman," McGregor told the defendant, adding that Spangler had shown only that the prosecution might be "inconvenienced," but not harmed, if a new trial was held.

 "You may have been inconvenienced, too, for the last 22 years," said McGregor, who repeatedly told Spangler throughout the hearing that the prosecution had a transcript of the first trial and can use it when witnesses are unavailable or couldn't recall their testimony.

 Spangler said the prosecution would be severely hampered in a retrial because the police and district attorney's files can't be found. She argued that a stale, cold recitation of the transcript wouldn't address any new defense presented by Wideman, who had claimed misidentification at the first trial.

 McGregor initially said yesterday he would deny bail because Wideman was a fugitive for three months after the slaying until he was apprehended in Colorado.

 But defense attorneys Mark Schwartz of Bryn Mawr and Paul Gettleman of Pittsburgh contended that Wideman had the same status as someone arrested for a crime. Under the presumption of innocence, he should be entitled to bond, they argued.

 McGregor set a bail hearing for 9 a.m. today.

 The prosecution is expected to appeal McGregor's decision and any granting of bail.

 Gettleman said Wideman's cousin, novelist Albert French of Point Breeze, was willing to post property worth $35,000; and that other family members would post an additional $20,000.

 Gettleman said the defendant would agree to electronic monitoring or any other conditions if released on bail to live with his sister.

 The victim's family filed a lawsuit in February 1976 that ended in February 1981 when two doctors at the former St. Joseph's Hospital on the South Side agreed to an out-of-court settlement for $100,000.

 A medical expert hired by the Morena family and Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, now the Allegheny County coroner, testified last month that Morena might have survived his gunshot wound if the doctors had drained his chest and given him intravenous fluids.

 McGregor said the case "cries out for a jury to hear the testimony," adding that the Morena family knew the victim died of another cause and got $100,000.

 But Spangler argued that the family got only $50,000 and the civil settlement wasn't an admission of guilt by the physicians. She said Wideman had an opportunity to learn about the settlement from a newspaper article in July 1983.

 Spangler said Wideman delayed his post-conviction petition until January 1996, which prejudiced the prosecution's ability to locate witnesses and the evidence to retry him.

 Regardless of the quality of medical treatment received by Morena, Spangler said Wideman was still responsible for the "foreseeable consequences of his actions."