Carswell indicted as attempting

a homosexual act

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. G. Harrold Carswell, a former federal judge whose U.S. Supreme Court. nomination was rejected by the Senate in 1970, was indicted by a grand jury yesterday on charges of attempting a homosexual act with a vice squad plainclothesman.

The two-count indictment charged that Carswell last Thursday committed battery battery on officer George Greene and attempted an “unnatural and lascivious act."

The charges are misdemeanors under Florida law with a maximum combined penalty of 14 months in jail.

Greene said he met Carswell in a shopping mall men's room that police staked out after merchants complained of homosexual activity.

Greene, said he and Carswell drove to a woods where Carswell touched him against his will — an

act constituting battery under Florida law.

Neither the officer nor the indictment elaborated on the type of physical contact.

Carswell, 56, has been in seclusion at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital since shortly after his arrest.

His attorney, Murray Wadsworth, said Carswell is being treated for "nervous exhaustion and depression" and is improving.

Carswell, married and the father of four, is a member of a Tallahassee law firm. He was at judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, when then-President Nixon nominated him to the Supreme Court in 1970.

The Senate rejected the nomination after opponents charged Carswell was a mediocre judge and had openly endorsed racial segregation when he campaigned for public office in Georgia.