1 Conviction on Reagan Ranch Flight Upset

A federal appellate court Friday reversed one of two counts on which an Army private was convicted after he piloted a light plane over then-President Ronald Reagan’s Santa Barbara ranch.

A three-judge U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel in San Francisco ruled that Ralph Myers, 34, was simply guarding against self-incrimination when he lied to Secret Service agents about why he flew over the ranch the night of Aug. 13, 1987.

They let stand, however, Myers’ conviction for earlier telling precisely the same lie to Federal Aviation Administration officials because things had not yet reached the stage of being an obvious criminal inquiry.

Assistant U.S. Atty. George Newhouse, who prosecuted Myers, said it is unlikely that Myers will be retried on the overturned count. In any event, he said, Myers has finished serving his sentence.

After being told by radio to contact FAA officials as soon as he landed at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, the judges noted, “Myers and his passenger immediately concocted a story about the appellant losing his contact lenses while in flight and . . . inadvertently flying into prohibited airspace.”

After failing a lie detector test, Myers admitted that he lied in an effort to keep his pilot’s license and avoid more trouble.