A former FBI agent who was the top agency contact for Jackie Presser's role as a Teamsters informant was jailed Monday for refusing to testify at the embezzlement and racketeering trial of two union officials. ``My position is the same as Friday,'' Robert S. Friedrick told U.S. District Court Judge George W. White, who revoked Friedrick's $1,000 bond and ordered him jailed to try to force him to testify under a grant of immunity. Friedrick's attorney, William D. Beyer, has appealed the judge's contempt citation of Friday to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. Friedrick invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when called as a witness Friday. Prosecutors had tried to have three of his sworn sworn statements admitted as evidence but White ruled the material untrustworthy. Beyer said the Friedrick interviews on Jan. 8, 9 and 13 of 1986 conflicted with Friedrick's earlier testimony. Because there were two versions of his statement, Beyer said any new testimony could conflict with one or the other version and might put Friedrick in jeopardy of perjury charges. Government attorneys indicated they wanted to call Friedrick to the stand to prove that Presser's FBI informant ``handlers'' never authorized the union's hiring ``ghost employees'' who were paid for doing no work. Stephen H. Jigger, a government prosecutor, said Friedrick's testimony was crucial because, of three Presser FBI ``handlers,'' Friedrick sometimes was the only agent who attended meetings with Presser and Anthony Hughes, a co-defendant and recording secretary of Teamsters Local 507 in Cleveland. Hughes and Harold Friedman, a Teamsters international vice president and president of Local 507, are charged with plotting a $700,000 scheme to hire ``ghost employees.'' Presser, who was Teamsters international president, was indicted on similar charges, but died July 9 before going on trial. After Friedrick, who was fired by the FBI in August 1986, repeated his unwillingness to testify, deputy U.S. marshals took him into custody. The U.S. Marshal's Service said he was taken to the Justice Center lockup. The judge said Friedrick could be jailed for up to 18 months for criminal contempt. Jigger also asked the judge to consider delaying the trial to give Friedrick time behind bars to reconsider his unwillingness to testify. Jigger said the prosecution has just one more witness to call. William C. Lynch, a senior Justice Department trial attorney also on the prosecution team, said the grant of immunity would rule out use against Friedrick any testimony he gives in the current trial. The judge excused the jury until Wednesday for procedural arguments outside the its presence.
