NATION : Zaccaro Asks Conviction Reversal

MONTPELIER, Vt. —  Lawyers for John A. Zaccaro Jr. asked the Vermont Supreme Court today to throw out a cocaine-peddling conviction against the son of unsuccessful 1984 Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine A. Ferraro.

Defense attorneys argued Zaccaro’s constitutional rights were violated in 1986 when an undercover Vermont state trooper entered his Middlebury apartment and bought $25 worth of cocaine.

Justices took today’s oral arguments under advisement.

Zaccaro, 25, served 90 days under house arrest, performed 530 hours of community service and made a $1,500 court-imposed donation to a Burlington youth group last year after his April, 1988, conviction on a charge of selling a quarter-gram of cocaine to the undercover officer while he was attending Middlebury College.