LOS ANGELES, May 9 – Dep. Dist. Atty. Vincent T. Bugliosi charged Monday that auto dealer Ralph Williams’ attorney used political influence with the district attorney’s office to win delays in prosecuting criminal false advertising charges against Williams.

Bugliosi told a news conference at the Greater Los Angeles Press Club that the district attorney’s office agreed to delays in the case following meetings between Paul Caruso, Williams’ lawyer, and John Howard, chief deputy to Dist. Atty. Joseph P. Busch.

Bugliosi, running against Busch in the June 6 primary election, has repeatedly said Caruso is granted special consideration by Busch because Caruso supports the district attorney politically.

Bugliosi also said that the prosecution failed to call 16 of 26 witnesses who were ready to testify. The district attorney’s office replied that everyone who had personal knowledge of the case was called as a witness.

The case eventually was dismissed by a judge.

Howard confirmed that he met with Caruso in an effort to get Williams to plead guilty to certain charges, but said he rejected a settlement offered by Caruso because it was insufficient.

Busch has denied Bugliosi’s charges.

This is the second time that Bugliosi has used the Williams issue in his campaign.

Earlier, he accused Busch of failing to move against Williams in another case, a civil suit charging false and misleading advertising. Six days later, Busch and State Atty. Gen. Evelle J. Younger filed the suit against Williams.

On each occasion, Bugliosi accused Busch of favoring Caruso.

Caruso has denied that he is a major political backer of Busch, although he said he is voting for him and once attended a campaign strategy session.

At his press conference, Bugliosi said that misdemeanor criminal false advertising charges were filed against Williams on June 23, 1970, after an investigation by the state Department of Motor Vehicles. Williams won the case on March 13, 1972, when the judge dismissed the charges.

“The district attorney’s office allowed that case to drag on almost two years before even calling one witness, knowing full well that the memory of the witnesses would fail,” Bugliosi said. “During this period, there was an astounding 18 separate continuances. The district attorney’s office only mildly objected to one out of the 18 continuances. This is commonly called continuing a case into oblivion.”

That prompted a sharp reply from Warren Haas, Municipal Court commissioner in Pasadena who was involved in the Williams prosecution when he was a deputy district attorney.

Jibing at Bugliosi’s prosecution of the lengthy Charles Manson murder case, Haas said that “everyone” in the district attorney’s office felt “that case could have been tried in half the time. That’s trying the case into oblivion.” He said “Bugliosi’s analysis… is misrepresentation, but that’s politics.” He said he fought giving Caruso continuances.

Former Los Angeles Dep. Dist. Atty. James Michael Byrne, who took over the case from Haas, said only two of the continuances granted during his tenure had the district attorney’s office’s approval.

Those followed conference in Howard’s office, he said. He said his superiors were interested in settling the case with a guilty plea, and trying to “work out a settlement of the case and save the taxpayers” the money that a trial would cost.

Howard said he ordered the case to trial and “we had our best guys handling it”

By BILL BOYARSKY