SANTA ROSA, Jan. 20 – A defense demand for change of venue on grounds of recent prejudicial publicity prompted Superior Court Judge Kenneth Eymann to impose a strict gag rule in the James Willett murder trial Friday.

Public Defender Marteen Miller said he was concerned about newspaper accounts of an alleged Charles Manson Family link of two possible female witnesses, one of which reportedly is the girl friend of defendant Michael Monfort.

Miller was especially critical of a Press Democrat article last Thursday that reported Monfort and his client, James Craig, hoped to marry in the jail the two women, Nancy Pittman and Priscilla Cooper, respectively.

“My client has no intention to marry this girl or any other woman,” Miller said.

He said the article linked Miss Cooper to the Manson Family — responsible for the Sharon Tate murders in southern California — and contended Miss Cooper never was a member of that subculture group.

At the sheriff’s office, Sheriff Stripeke said of the reported double wedding, “It’ll be a cold day in hell before I let them get married in this jail.”

And later Friday, Eymann stated, “I wish to make it unequivocally clear that the court will not give permission for either of them to marry while they are in this county.

“I will be highly surprised if (the sheriff) will allow a wedding ceremony in the jail.”

Thursday’s Press Democrat article named George Douglas Vaughn, Monfort’s lawyer, as the source of information regarding the pending double jailhouse wedding.

Source of the information became a vital issue, but Eymann said the press had an “inalienable right” report anything inside and out of the courtroom and that it would be “highly improper” to question the reporter who wrote the article about his source of information.

However, when asked by the judge, Vaughn acknowledged he was the source which prompted the news article.

Miller said he had nothing to do with the marriage story and that Monfort’s lawyer had placed Craig in a “tenuous, dangerous position” in the eyes of prospective jurors who may have read the article.

“I do not believe you used very good judgment to have made such a statement,” Eymann told Vaughn.

Miss Pittman and Miss Cooper were transferred from the women’s state prison at Frontera to the Sonoma County jail, presumably at Vaughn’s request.

Vaughn called Miss Pittman to testify briefly on Monfort’s behalf in a pre-trail hearing on a dismissal motion on Wednesday.

Miller, meanwhile, said he had no hand in having the women brought to Sonoma County, that as far as he is concerned they have nothing to do with the Willett murder and that he did not plan to call them as witnesses.

Declaring he considered it an “extremely serious matter,” Eymann immediately imposed a strict gag rule, prohibiting any law enforcement officer or anyone even remotely connected to the case from making any statements to the news media.

At the onset of Friday’s session, Eymann dismissed the 34 prospective jurors and instructed them to return at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Miller also expressed concern over articles mentioning Craig in relation to the slaying of Willett’s 19-year-old wife, Lauren, in Stockton Nov. 10, 1972.

In that case, Monfort was sent to state prison on a charge of second-degree murder and Criag on a charge of being “an accessory after the fact.”

Miller said his client was not involved in the wife’s slaying, and previously moved for a separate trial for Craig because of that problem.

Dist. Atty. Hawkes opposed a change of venue, contending that the defense brought the latest undesirable publicity upon itself.

He said judging from response of jurors already question about the publicity, it was his opinion “many people do not read The Press Democrat and those that do, don’t read anything in it.”

Only one of 11 jurors questioned thus far said he recalled any details about the case which he read in the newspaper.

Vaughn suggested that from now on jurors be questioned individually, possibly in the judge’s chambers, regarding any previous knowledge of the case.

Eymann requested the defense lawyers to submit all newspaper articles relating to the case and continued it to 9 a.m. Tuesday for a ruling on the venue motion.

Monfort and Craig are charged with murdering Willett, 26-year-old son of Kentucky distiller, whose headless remains were found in a shallow grave near Guerneville Nov. 8, 1972.

By BONY SALUDES