secret report

It is one of the most fundamental tenets of English common law and of American justice that the accused have the right to know the evidence against them, and to dispute it - but not in the court being conducted by Judge Prentis Edwards in Wayne County District Court in Detroit. Two Ambassador Bridge men Manuel 'Matty' Moroun and Dan Stamper were sent to jail January 12 on the basis of a secret report.

The Ambassador Bridge company fought so fiercely the release of an annual engineer's inspection report it was bound to get huge media attention when it was released today by veteran Michigan congressman John Dingell. Two courts had rejected the bridge company's efforts to invoke national security and proprietary data to keep under wraps the report by wellknown bridge engineers Modjeski & Masters.