Branch Davidians: Evidence Tampered By Michelle Mittelstadt Associated Press Writer Wednesday, March 15, 2000; 6:07 p.m. EST WASHINGTON -- Contending that the government has withheld, destroyed or tampered with important evidence related to the federal siege of a Waco, Texas, compound in 1993, lawyers for Branch Davidians who have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit are asking a federal judge for help. In a 31-page motion being filed in federal court in Waco, the Davidians' lead counsel asked U.S. District Judge Walter Smith to schedule a hearing to review the complaint or to sanction the government. "A disturbing pattern has emerged," the motion by Davidian lawyer Michael Caddell said. "Much of the key evidence relating to the events of April 19, 1993, has been 'lost,' altered or tampered with." U.S. Attorney Michael Bradford of Beaumont, whose office has coordinated the massive document production demanded by the court, didn't immediately return a telephone call seeking comment, nor did a Justice Department spokesman. In his motion, Caddell complained of "suspicious gaps" in evidence and said the government had failed to meet the judge's September 1999 order to produce original audio and video tapes, photographic negatives and other evidence. Among the originals reported lost by the government, Caddell said, were negatives for an 11:24 a.m. photo the FBI has brandished as proof that no gunshots were fired by federal agents into the Branch Davidian retreat. The plaintiffs, whose case goes to trial in mid-May, contend that aerial infrared surveillance footage shot by the FBI offers definitive proof that government agents fired their weapons as the Davidians' building burned. The government, for seven years, has staunchly denied that its agents fired any shots that day or that it bears any responsibility for the fire that raced through the compound several hours into an FBI tear-gassing operation designed to flush the Davidians out. Davidian leader David Koresh and some 80 followers died, some from the fire, others from gunshot wounds. The government contends they perished by their own hand. The plaintiffs, who have deposed dozens of on-scene FBI personnel, contend an FBI photographer's testimony offers proof that several rolls of film shot in the crucial hour before the compound burned are missing from the evidence turned over by the government. "The pattern of the photographs produced by the FBI suggests only one thing: the FBI has turned over only those photographs to the court (and the press) that the FBI wants the court and the public to see," Caddell charged. The plaintiffs accuse the government of other wrongdoing, including: * Never returning a roll of film confiscated from the Texas Rangers showing bodies and weaponry found inside the decimated concrete bunker. "The absence of these photographs makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to determine if any of these persons were shot outside of that room and moved into it prior to or after the fire," the motion said. * Representing as originals audio recordings made from listening devices planted inside the compound during the 51-day siege. An analysis commissioned by the plaintiffs suggests the tapes are copies. The tapes -- which the government has relied on for proof that the Davidians spread fuel and started the fire -- also bear signs of being recorded with multiple recorders, the plaintiffs' tape expert concluded. "There existed a number of suspicious record events (i.e. anomalies) which casts serious doubt on the tapes' originality and authenticity," the plaintiffs' tape expert, Steve Cain, wrote in a Feb. 24 report. (c) Copyright 2000 The Associated Press ========================================================== http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20000315/aponline180738_000.htm ========================================================== ======================================================== WACO PROTEST: http://users.erols.com/igoddard/waco-1.htm ======================================================== "There are times when you cannot keep your job and put alternative explanations for data on the table." Former FBI Special Agent Dr. Frederic Whitehurst
