HUEY NEWTON DENIES MURDER AND ASSAULT

OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 21—Huey P. Newton seemed to be conveying the image of the new Black Panther Party today when he came to court to plead not guilty to charges of murder and assault.

He stood waiting to plead with his head hack, dressed in a dark blue, doublebreasted suit with a blue and white polkadotted tie and a blue and white striped shirt.

He was smiling and soft‐spoken, even gracious, to reporters. No menacing, gunwielding Panthers stood on the courthouse steps chanting “Free Huey! Off the pigs!”

It was as though all that belonged to earlier years. However, a shooting incident that officials say was a bungled attempt to kill a prosecution witness has raised questions about that.

Judge Alan Lindsay of Alameda County Court told Mr. Newton to return to court Jan. 2 for the setting of a trial date. After the pleading, Mr. Newton left court in continued $80,000 bail.

The Panthers have been rather sedate for two years or more under the leadership of Elaine Brown, a former cocktail waitress. Slowly, they have become a part of the social weave of Oakland now that a black majority is emerging and taking control there.

Mr. Newton's partner in founding the Panthers, Bobby Seale, ran for mayor in 1973 and lost, but not by much. He is not now active in Panther matters. Miss Brown ran in 1973 and 1977 for the City Council and came close.

Flight to Cuba Recalled

In 1977, Oakland's first black Mayor, Lionel Wilson, was elected and welcomed Panther support. In 1976, Miss Brown was one of Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.'s delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Mr. Newton, now 35 years old, ran away to Cuba in 1974 to avoid trial on the charges now facing him. He was accused of shooting a prostitute who later died and of pistol‐whipping a tailor in a disagreement over the price of a suit.

The other male leaders of the Panthers were gone. Eldridge Cleaver ran away in 1968. David Hilliard was in jail. When Mr. Cleaver came home in late 1975, the Panthers and Miss Brown snubbed him.

Mr. Cleaver was in jail for eight months and said that he had been left “stranded, hopeless and helpless” until a wealthy Philadelphia insurance executive bailed him out and put him on tour as a “bornagain” Christian.

Within days after Mr. Newton came home from Cuba last July, the Panthers had him out on bail and installed him as head of the party. Miss Brown became known as vice chairman.

‘Dirty Tricks Reported’

His defense effort began to move. His lawyers forced the Federal Bureau of Investigation to admit that it had tapped his telephone and had engaged in a “dirty tricks” campaign designed to disrupt black militancy. One anonymous letter that the bureau sent out said:

“Brothers, I am employed by the State of California and have been close to Huey Newton while he was in jail. Let me warn you that this pretty nigger may very well be working for the pig Reagan.”

False press releases and other letters also tried to divide supporters of Mr. Newton from those of Angela Davis, another black militant, and to exacerbate the ill will between the Panthers and the followers of Ron Karenga of Los Angeles.

At a preliminary hearing last month, Preston Callins, 53, the tailor in the alleged pistol‐whipping on which the assault charge is based, said “my memory, has been failing.”

The alleged attempt to murder a wit‐, ness was described by the prosecutor, Tom Orloff.

The allegation was that the target was Raphaelle Jeanette Gary, a prostitute who later testified that she had seen Mr. Newton standing over the body of Kathleen Smith, 17, the girl who was shot in the head and later died.

As the prosecutor told it, the attempt was bungled because the murder squad went to the apartment next door to Miss Gary's. The resident there fired through the door, which was then riddled with automatic fire from outside.

The police found the body of Louis Johnson, 27, a Panther, nearby. Later, they issued a warrant for the arrest of another Panther, Flores Forbes, 25. Mr. Newton denied the police statement that Mr. Forbes was his bodyguard.