In related news, police in Corvallis, Oregon arrested four suspects last Wednesday under suspicion of preparing to make a fertilizer bomb, like the kind used in the Oklahoma City bombing and allegedly planned by Lampley. Corvallis and county police siezed large amounts of fuel oil, ammonium nitrate fertilizer, detonation devices, and bomb-making instructions, according to wire service reports.]
Lawyers claim their clients denied right to a speedy trial |
(AR) OKLAHOMA CITY -- The lawyers for a self-proclaimed prophet and his
co-defendants are awaiting a federal judge's ruling on whether the
government's decision to seek new bombing conspiracy indictments
unconstitutionally denied their clients' rights to a speedy trial.
The attorneys for Willie "Ray" Lampley, 65; his wife, Cecilia, 50, and John D. Baird, 54, contend their clients were ready for trial and the delay granted the government is unconstitutional. Lampley's attorney, Jay Williams of Muskogee, said late last month that the motion to dismiss had been filed by the lawyer for one of the other defendants. "I am just sort of waiting to see what the judge decides," Williams said. A new federal grand jury is expected to return a new indictment against all the defendants. It will be the third such indictment.
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Typographical error listed an incorrect date when Lampley allegedly had weapon |
SLUG
The original indictment was returned November 15 against the three
defendants and Larry Wayne Crow, 56, who now lives in New Mexico. A
superseding indictment was returned January 9 by another grand jury.
But federal prosecutors found typographical errors in the superseding indictment and asked U.S. District Judge Frank Seay for permission to get a new indictment. Seay agreed, and kept the original indictment alive. In addition to the conspiracy charge, Lampley was indicted on a count of possession of a firearm while in the commission of a crime of violence and of solicitation to commit a crime of violence. In the hearing, the government contended the dismissal motion was premature because the time period for a speedy trial had not run, Williams said. He said the government lawyers contend they have until sometime in April to meet the speedy trial demands "while we argue that it doesn't run that long." "That is going to be the next fight," Williams said. Crow has agreed to testify against the other three in exchange for a reduction in the charge against him. His case has been transferred to New Mexico, where he is expected to plead to a charge of concealing a felony. Lampley, who lives with his wife in the rural southeastern Oklahoma community of Vernon, allegedly has identified himself as a leader of a so-called militia organization. He and the others were charged with plotting to use fertilizer bombs against such targets as abortion clinics, gay bars, welfare offices and the offices of the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Government authorities allege Lampley was planning to test a bomb on a large rock at Elohim City, a white-supremacist compound on the Arkansas border. He was arrested before the test could be made, they said. Agents raided the Lampley home and said they recovered bomb-making material. They identified this material as ammonium nitrate, nitromethane and aluminum powder. In a jailhouse interview, Lampley said he wanted to stockpile bombs and other weapons to fight a foreign invasion he predicted would occur in December. According to the indictment, Lampley and Crow traveled last August to South Dakota, where they met with other militia members and sought their help. They were refused and the militia members notified authorities. The second, or superseding, indictment was issued because prosecutors wanted to add a firearms count against Baird that was similar to one lodged against Lampley. Federal officials said a typographical error listed an incorrect date when Lampley allegedly had the firearm. In addition, the superseding indictment incorrectly listed Crow as a co-defendant with Lampley on the firearms count. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mile Littlefield called it "a word processing error. We were amazed and astounded when we learned it had happened."
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Trial likely delayed until April |
Littlefield
also said the firearms charge against Lampley would
have to be changed to come into compliance with a new U.S. Supreme Court
interpretation on what constitutes possession of a firearm while in
commission of a crime of violence.
Trial originally had been scheduled for January 23 but had to be postponed when the government asked for the new indictment. Courthouse sources indicate it will be April before the trial can be held. Williams said he had "grave concerns" over the delay. "We have 1,500 pages of discovery, hours and hours of tapes and our witnesses were lined up," Williams said. He pointed out that Lampley had been in jail since November and "now he'll be stuck in jail at least another 60 days." Lampley and Baird are being held without bond. Cecilia Lampley remains jailed in lieu of am $80,000 bond. Lampley is "very dismayed" at the delay and is anxious to present his side, Williams said. Jim Wilcoxen, an attorney for Baird, said federal prosecutors asked his client to plead guilty to conspiracy. If he would, Wilcoxen said, federal prosecutors said they would not file the firearms charge, which mandates a five-year sentence upon conviction. Baird has no criminal record and refuses to plead guilty to anything, Wilcoxen said. |
Albion Monitor March 10, 1996 (http://www.monitor.net/monitor)
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