Judge OKs public defender for man in Nazi case

CLEVELAND (AP) - Federal Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland issued a brief order Tuesday approving the federal public defender's request to represent 90-year-old John Demjanjuk...

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

CLEVELAND (AP) — An American judge has appointed a public defender to represent the U.S. legal interests of a retired Ohio autoworker on trial in Germany for alleged Nazi war crimes.

Federal Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland issued a brief order Tuesday approving the federal public defender’s request to represent 90-year-old John Demjanjuk.

The judge says the appointment won’t affect Demjanjuk’s German trial, where a verdict could come as early as Thursday.

Demjanjuk doesn’t have any current legal proceedings under way in the U.S.

However, the judge indicated Demjanjuk could revive his U.S. denaturalization based on a 1985 FBI report uncovered by The Associated Press. The FBI report challenged the authenticity of a Nazi ID card used as evidence in the German trial.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.

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