National Affairs: Roundup Time in Portland

Indicted with 33 others by a Portland, Ore. grand jury last week in the aftermath of the Senate investigation into Western Teamster attempts to take over the city's rackets (see PRESS) : Mayor Terry D. Schrunk, 44, longtime (1949-56) Democratic county sheriff until he won the top job with Teamsters' backing last fall. The charges: 1) accepting, while still sheriff, a bribe "in amount unknown" (commonly put at $500) from Teamster-linked Gambler Clifford Bennett during a raid on Bennett's after-hours joint in 1955, and 2) perjury before the grand jury by denying he took the bribe. Testifying before the McClellan committee, Schrunk had also denied the bribery charge despite sworn testimony by eyewitnesses, demanded a lie-detector test, stalked out when the questions got too hot: e.g., Had he in fact ever been paid off by gamblers?

Biggest wheel among Schrunk's fellow defendants: Teamster-sponsored Democratic District Attorney William M. Langley, 41, who repeatedly took the Fifth Amendment at committee hearings, e.g., when accused of conspiring with Teamster leaders to expand Portland vice operations. Bill Langley, already under a three-count indictment for malfeasance (e.g., corruption, incompetency, delinquency, etc.) in office, was reindicted on substantially the same charges with a fourth thrown in: receiving a bribe for allowing certain gambling operations' to run.

Released on bail, Schrunk and Langley defiantly insisted they would continue as mayor and district attorney despite the indictments.