News In Brief

Labor secretary asks court to drop charges against him

Labor Secretary Raymond J. Donovan and his co-defendants asked a New York State judge Thursday to dismiss larceny and fraud charges against them, claiming broad misconduct by prosecutors and no evidence of any crime.

Mr. Donovan, former executive vice-president of Schiavone Construction Company, is charged with conspiring to exaggerate reported payments to a minority subcontractor on a $186 million subway tunneling project in 1979 and 1980. He quit Schiavone to become labor secretary in 1981; he now is on leave.