Lawmaker Acquitted in Bribery Case

After an eight-year ordeal that cost him a powerful committee post in Congress, Rep. Joseph M. McDade (R-Pa.) was acquitted of taking defense-industry bribes ranging from a green Masters golf jacket to a college education for his son. The jury delivered the verdict only an hour after notifying U.S. District Judge Robert S. Gawthrop III that it was deadlocked. McDade, a 17-term Republican who had maintained that failure to report $100,000 in gifts was an honest mistake, broke into a broad smile, and his lawyers wept. He could have been sentenced to 34 years in prison and fined $1.25 million.