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Reporter Fined In Agnew Case

By Scott W. Jacobs

Wendell C. Smith, 28, the Phoenix reporter charged with disturbing a public assembly during the March 18 speech of Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew, was found guilty and fined $10 yesterday in Suffolk District Court.

Judge Elijah Adlow, dispensing good cheer as well as punishment to the parade of petitioners who passed before him, admonished Smith that "when people pay money for a dinner to hear the Vice-President speak, why should you stand up and disfigure the assembly?"

Smith has long hair.

In another case of disorderly conductstemming from the demonstration outside the Agnew dinner, William Samson, a first-year Divinity School student, was found not guilty of all charges.

Samson had been arrested during the march away from the hotel rally along with 14 others. He appeared in court with bandages over his nose and check bone. During his arrest, the officer had smashed his glasses which splintered into his eyes and broke his nose, Samson told Judge Adlow.

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