WXPost FEB 2 1974 THE WASHINGTON POST Saturday, F eb. 2,1974 Miss Woods A 15,; Testifies to Grand Jury By George Lardner Jr. . Washington Post staff Writer Rose Mary Woods, President Nixon's personal secretary. testified yesterday before a federal grand jury inveitigat- ing the 181/2 minutes of era- sures on one of his Watergate tapes. She said she answered every question put to her and gave the same account She has al- ready stated publicly. "I, have only one story; to tell," Miss Woods told report- ers after her day-long appear- ance at the U.S. Courthouse here. "I have told only the truth all the way through." Miss Woods has said she might have caused a five-Min- ute gap in the tape—but no more—when she was review- ing it for Mr. Nixon on a Uher recording machine in her White House office last Oct 1. Asked whether she thought the entire 181/2 minutes were erased accidentally, she said: "I have no idea. It could even, have; been just a lousy ma chine, as a. matter of fact." Her attorney, Charles B. .Rhyne, sharply denounced the technical experts who re- Associated press ported last month that the Rose Mary Woods leaves U.S. Courthouse with her attorney, Charles Rhyne. 181/2-minute gap was the result of five separate erasures, .4.1 of their work instead of re- However, he acknowledged done manually. The experts porting it to the court. said that none of the erasures that this theory still left unan- Rhyne said he had a report swered the f"problem" of how —which obliterated a discus- from a Virginia firm, Dektor sion of the Watergate scandal Counterintelligence & Secu- 181/2 minutes could have been between Mr. Nixon and for- rity, Inc., suggesting that the erased. Miss.. Woods has re- mer White House chief of faulty part itself could have peatedly stated that she no- staff H. R. (Bob) Haldeman— erased the tape 'by sputtering ticed and corrected her mis- could have been made by the on and• off while Miss Woods footpedal Miss Woods said she tvas on the phone, as she has take immediately after a five- was using. testified. minute phone call. Calling the experts The head of the firm, Allan The Dektor firm had no ac- "profesiors who don't know D. Bell Jr., told a reporter, cess to the erased tape and what they're doing," Rhyne as- that he feels, that the faulty performed its tests on a Uher sailed their study as "a $100,- part could have decreased 4000 recorder, which has a dif- 000 boondoggle." Speaking to voltage to the machine, then ferent type of power supply. reporters while Miss Woods suddenly cut it off, and turned But Bell, who had once hoped testified, he criticized the it back on again—leaving the to see his firm represented on technical panel for replacing a same "erase" signatures on the panel of experts. said "we faulty part in Miss Woods' the tapes that the experts made allowances" for these Uher 5000 during the course found. factors.