May 7, 1999 -- NEW YORK -- SLAM! That's gotta hurt! We just hope Ken Starr's airbag was working.

In another embarrassing high-profile setback to Kenneth Starr's attacks on American citizens in his fanatic quest to get anything on President Clinton, U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton declared a mistrial late this afternoon in Julie Hiatt Steele's obstruction of justice trial after the jury reported for a second time that it was "hopelessly deadlocked" on all four felony charges filed against Steele by the Office of Independent Counsel -- the only such indictments filed thus far in the year-long investigation by Starr into the Lewinsky flap.

The Steele mistrial follows Starr's other recent humiliating defeat: the acquittal of Susan McDougal on charges filed by Starr of obstruction of justice and a mistrial on two criminal contempt charges. The McDougal verdict was widely regarded as a condemnation of Starr for a pattern and practice of abuse of office and gross prosecutorial misconduct.

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Today's verdict leaves the unmistakable impression that Starr's decision to indict Steele was misguided at best -- or, more likely, a move to "legitimize" Kathleen Willey. Starr accused Steele of "obstructing" Starr's investigation of the Lewinsky matter by claiming she lied to a grand jury about what and when former White House volunteer Kathleen Willey had told her concerning an alleged sexual advance by Clinton. The accusation -- not to mention the subsequent indictment -- has been derided by numerous authorities on the subject of the legal system and prosecutorial procedure. And the skepticism over Starr's decision and tactics were amplified by an article in last week's issue of The Nation which raised yet more questions about Willey's reliability as a witness and Starr's conduct in moving to indict and prosecute Steele.

Following the ruling, a radiant and relieved-looking Steele told members of the press that "I'm innocent. I feel relieved and happy and I think it's time to celebrate.... It's been a long, long road. I'm glad I spoke out." Because the possibility remains that Starr may move to retry the case, neither Steele nor her lawyer Nancy Luque would comment on the case itself. Starr has 70 days to decide whether to retry Steele.

The jury of five men and seven women deliberated for a total of 7 1/2 hours over a period of two days which began yesterday -- following the unexpected decision by Steele's defense attorneys to rest their case without calling witnesses. The jury foreman sent a note to Judge Hilton this afternoon saying that they were "hopelessly deadlocked" on all four charges. Steele's defense team immediately moved for a mistrial, and prosecutors from Starr's office replied with a request that the jury continue deliberations. Hilton then instructed the jury to make one more attempt to reach a verdict. Following another 1 1/2 hours of deliberation, the judge was given a second note from the jury saying that "further deliberations would not resolve the matter" -- with the word "not" underlined in the note. At this point, the judge recalled the jury, which said that it was deadlocked, and then declared a mistrial.

Press coverage of the trial has come under criticism from a number of quarters, especially the fact that the press played up Willey's repetition of her accusation that she had been "groped" by President Clinton while almost entirely ignoring the rigorous cross-examination of prosecution witnesses by Luque -- and her effective demolition of every witness' reliability and truthfulness.

But the damage is done -- the beleaguered Starr has failed to secure convictions in two high-profile trials in a row, and clear and evidence of a pattern of abuse by Starr are now on the trial record. His office remains in disarray following the departure of three of his key prosecutors. And Starr himself faces a number of investigations into his conduct which could lead to sanction, indictment and even incarceration.

This is not a happy time to be the Independent Counsel -- having run head-on into a Steele Wall.