Gary Hart

WASHINGTON -- This time was supposed to be different.After the 1988 presidential campaign, critics of the news media, including many in the press itself, felt reporters had gone too far in exposing the personal lives of politicians.But again this year, a candidate's private sexual behavior is drawing headlines and filling the airwaves. And once again, the politicians, their handlers and the people who report the news are groping for ways of dealing with an explosive subject.Has nothing changed?

A jury deliberated 3 1/2 hours yesterday before clearing real estatebroker Gary Hart of personal responsibility for failing to pay health insurance for a former employee who lost coverage and became serously ill.After hearing three days of testimony last week, the jury instead found Hart's company, Gary Hart and Associates Ltd., liable and awarded $275,000 in damages to defendant Robin Stallings.Stallings and Karen Kilheffer, who worked as a Realtor with Stallings at a company Stallings later sold to Hart, charged the Realtor with negligence and breach of contract.

Rick Griffin, whose psychedelic posters and album cover made him one of the most prominent rock music artists of the 1960s, died of head injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident in Santa Rosa, Calif., Saturday. He was 47. Mr. Griffin's mostfamous poster, "The Flying Eyeball," was commissioned by rock promoter Bill Graham for a Jimi Hendrix-John Mayall concert in 1968. He also created album covers and posters for such rock groups as the Grateful Dead, Iron Butterfly, and Big Brother and the Holding Company.

From: Lewis BracyPresidentBlacks for SuccessAs chairman of the Black Political Forum ofAnne Arundel County, I would like to express our appreciation to staff reporter JoAnna Daemmrich for her reporting on the trouble-plaguedcounty Housing Authority.Although there are many problems still facing the county Housing Authority, Ms. Daemmrich's articles, along with the Black Political Forum's report on the Neall administration, has yielded two positive results.The first was the appointment ofMs.

ANNAPOLIS -- Gary Hart, a prominent real estate broker from Anne Arundel County, was found not guilty yesterday of raping a 34-year-old woman who testified that she was choked and held against her will following a date last October.It took eight men and four women 3 1/2 hours to return a verdict in the trial, which has included 11 days of testimony, much of it centering on the woman's psychiatric history and relationships with men.The detailed probing of the woman's past by defense lawyers in Circuit Court in Annapolis has drawn fire from prosecutors and rape counselors who said they have never seen any woman bringing rape charges undergo such rigid scrutiny.

It's after 10:30 Monday morning, and the Gary Hart rape trial is already more than an hour behind schedule. The delay only causes the line of people standing outside the courtroom door to swell.Finally,a sheriff walks out of the judge's office and issues the ground rules. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. No standing is allowed. A number of seats are reserved for family members and the press."I expect all of you to conduct yourselves like ladies and gentlemen," the sheriff hollers.

A prosecutor warned jurors yesterday not to be distracted by lawyersrepresenting real estate broker Gary Hart, who is on trial for first-degree rape, as the defense tries to shift the focus of the trial byattacking the credibility of the alleged victim."

WITH PRESIDENT Bush's popularity soaring, and the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination currently looking about as desirable as a free weekend in the South Bronx, you're hearing the foolish talk again about the Democrats using that nomination as something less than a serious bid for the White House.One notion is that the party ought to let Jesse Jackson have it, let him get clobbered, and get him and his political monkey wrench out of the Democratic presidential picture once and for all. Another is to give the nomination to 70-year-old Sen. Lloyd Bentsen on the notion that he will run a credible, if losing, race against Bush and thus prevent a lot of other good Democrats from going down to defeat.

With public scrutiny taking a toll on his private life, county real estate broker Gary Hart has closed the company that bears his name and formed an agency affiliated with Coldwell Banker."