WACO - In a surprise move at noon Friday, Judge Walter Smith, Jr. ruled plaintiff and defense presentations in the Davidian wrongful death suit will be limited to 40 hours each.
The ruling effectively bars former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark from any significant role in the case.
Clark represents several Davidian survivors of the 1993 shootout at Mount Carmel, many of whom still believe in David Koresh. Michael Caddell of Houston represents Davidian relatives, who partly blame Koresh for the deaths of their loved ones.
"In this country, you are entitled to your day in court. To limit the trial to 40 hours is to destroy the integrity of the trial," Clark told the San Antonio Express-News after the ruling.
A limit on presentations first was suggested about two weeks ago by Caddell, lead plaintiffs attorney in the case.
Both Clark and Justice Department attorneys opposed the time stricture, and Smith allowed the trial to open and run for five days - 21 hours and 30 minutes by his notations - before imposing the limit.
Lead Justice Department attorney Michael Bradford of Houston said afterward that he will not ask Smith to reconsider.
Clark plans to appeal for a more liberal ruling once the plaintiffs team has caucused.
At the moment of the ruling, Caddell already had lined up witnesses to give testimony through Wednesday morning. Clark was to have followed him, putting survivors and experts on the stand.
Caddell told the court that despite the limit, he believed he could meet the new deadline, expected to close by midweek.
Smith's ruling came as the court recessed for lunch after about three hours of testimony by an FBI supervisor and two agents who were crewmen for one of the half-dozen military tanks that the agency used during the 1993 standoff.
A third crewmember, Thomas Rowan, had testified Wednesday.
Caddell put the tankers and their supervisor on the stand, then pressed them about discrepancies in their accounts of activity April 19, the day of the fire that consumed Mount Carmel.
The discrepancies appeared in after-action reports, criminal trial proceedings and recent depositions.
The Houston lawyer's object was to elicit testimony that federal tanks had rammed holes in Mount Carmel without authorization, that FBI tankers planned to destroy the building's gymnasium and that they had fired military pyrotechnic tear gas rounds, setting fire to its cafeteria.
The effort was partly successful. Caddell introduced the after-action report of agent Mike Sackett, which recorded Sackett as saying that when he saw an armored vehicle enter the gym, he assumed its object was "to take down parts of the building."
The entry of tanks had not been foreseen, Sackett also said. He told the court that on April 19, he had expected "we'd be out there a day, maybe two days, whatever it took to get them to come out."
Mount Carmel had turned to ashes within six hours of the onset of an FBI tear gas attack that day.
All three agents professed memory lapses, but under questioning, one of them, Thomas Rowan, admitted the tank he and the others manned "probably did have military rounds" in its ammunition basket.
But "we did not fire a military round that day," Rowan insisted.
Supervisor McGavin maintained the use of tanks to create holes in Mount Carmel had not been anticipated in a raid plan approved by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, but the decision to smash through walls "was well within the discretion of the
on-scene commander."
Similar sentiments were voiced by Reno in brief excerpts of a deposition by videotape, introduced late Friday by Caddell and Justice attorneys.
W A C O, Texas, June 24 - During the final day of the Branch Davidian standoff, federal agents had the discretion to do what needed to be done to remove sect members and insert tear gas into the compound, Attorney General Janet Reno said in a videotaped deposition played for jurors Friday.
"But the discretion would have to be exercised within the limits of the plan," Reno said of the FBI commanders at the Mount Carmel site near Waco.
The Reno-approved plan called for FBI agents to use tank booms to gradually insert tear gas in the building. The plan permitted systematic destruction of the compound only 48 hours after a determination that the tear-gassing plan had failed.
Not Following Orders
Reno’s testimony was played during the $675 million wrongful death lawsuit brought by surviving Davidians and family members who claim the government is responsible for the deaths of some 80 people who died April 19, 1993, some from fire, others from gunshots.
Plaintiff’s attorney Michael Caddell contends that federal agents violated the approved plan when they prematurely began tearing down a part of the building know as the gymnasium while agents in tanks launched tear gas into the compound.
"The plan of operation was to utilize chemical agents placed within the compound to bring the people out," Steve McGavin, an FBI supervisory agent who helped draft a proposal to remove the Davidians, told jurors.
He said an FBI contingency plan called for gassing the entire compound if agents’ safety was ever compromised.
McGavin also said firefighting equipment was not on the "inner perimeter." "There was no plan to bring in firefighting equipment until we could secure the building and secure the safety of firefighters."
Caddell later showed videotaped testimony of four former high-ranking FBI officials who said they believed Reno’s instructions for on-site emergency crews included firefighting equipment.
The testimony came from former FBI director Williams Sessions, former deputy director Floyd Clarke, retired deputy assistant FBI director Danny Coulson and former FBI Assistant Director Larry Potts.
Reno said she didn’t dictate details of the plan, such as where the tanks were or how tear gas would be inserted into the building. She told investigators in the Justice Department’s 1993 review of the Waco tragedy that senior FBI leaders told her to "butt out" after she agreed to let them tear-gas the compound because she was not on the scene.
Tear Gas Swarm
In earlier testimony Friday, several tank-riding FBI agents testified they saw smoke wafting from the thin wooden walls of the complex shortly after canisters of tear gas were fired into the Davidian complex.
Government lawyers say sect leader David Koresh and some 80 followers intentionally started three fires that quickly engulfed the complex and ended the 51-day siege.
Agent Tom Rowan testified he fired as many as 80 "ferret rounds" - plastic canisters containing tear gas - into the complex to force Davidians from the complex. Experts say ferret rounds are not considered incendiary devices.
But Caddell attempted to get the agent to talk about more incendiary munitions, asking if the FBI used "military rounds," metallic canisters that potentially could be flammable devices.
Under cross-examination by government attorneys, Rowan and other agents said they observed what appeared to be muzzle flashes from gunfire in several windows before the fire started.
WACO, Texas (AP) - During the final day of the Branch Davidian standoff, federal agents had the discretion to do what needed to be done to insert tear gas to flush sect members out of the compound, Attorney General Janet Reno said in a videotaped deposition played for jurors Friday.
''But the discretion would have to be exercised within the limits of the plan,'' Reno said of the FBI commanders at the Mount Carmel site near Waco.
The Reno-approved plan called for FBI agents to use tank booms to gradually insert tear gas in the building. If after 48 hours the tear-gassing plan was ineffective, then agents could begin the systematic dismantling of the compound.
Reno's testimony was played during the $675 million wrongful death lawsuit brought by surviving Davidians and family members who claim the government is responsible for the deaths of some 80 people who died April 19, 1993, some from fire, others from gunshots.
Plaintiff's attorney Michael Caddell contends that federal agents violated the approved plan when they prematurely began tearing down a part of the building known as the gymnasium while agents in tanks launched tear gas into the compound.
Earlier Friday, Steve McGavin, an FBI supervisory agent who helped draft a proposal to remove the Davidians, told jurors that firefighting equipment was not on the ''inner perimeter.'' ''There was no plan to bring in firefighting equipment until we could secure the building and secure the safety of firefighters,'' he said.
Caddell later showed videotaped testimony of four former high-ranking FBI officials who said they believed Reno's instructions for on-site emergency crews included firefighting equipment.
The testimony came from former FBI director Williams Sessions, former deputy director Floyd Clarke, retired deputy assistant FBI director Danny Coulson and former FBI Assistant Director Larry Potts.
Reno said she didn't dictate details of the plan, such as where the tanks were or how tear gas would be inserted into the building. She told investigators in the Justice Department's 1993 review of the Waco tragedy that senior FBI leaders told her to ''butt out'' after she agreed to let them tear-gas the compound because she was not on the scene.
Also Friday, several tank-riding FBI agents testified they saw smoke wafting from the thin wooden walls of the complex shortly after canisters of tear gas were fired into the Davidian complex.
Government lawyers say sect leader David Koresh and some 80 followers intentionally started three fires that quickly engulfed the complex and ended the 51-day siege.
Agent Tom Rowan testified he fired as many as 80 so-called ''ferret rounds'' - plastic canisters containing tear gas - into the complex to force Davidians from the complex. Experts say ferret rounds are not considered incendiary devices.
But Caddell attempted to get the agent to talk about more incendiary munitions, asking if the FBI used ''military rounds,'' metallic canisters that potentially could be flammable devices.
Under cross-examination by government attorneys, Rowan and other agents said they observed what appeared to be muzzle flashes from gunfire in several windows before the fire started.
Attorney General Janet Reno ordered that emergency vehicles, including firefighting equipment, be on hand before the FBI commenced its final tear-gas operation designed to drive the Branch Davidians from Mount Carmel, Reno and high-ranking FBI officials testified Friday.
Attorneys for plaintiffs in the Branch Davidian wrongful-death lawsuit against the government turned their attention Friday to allegations that the FBI helped start and spread the fire and failed to have a plan to fight a fire at David Koresh's compound east of Waco.
Reno, former FBI director William Sessions and three former top FBI officials, all testifying through videotaped depositions, said that Reno was not told that FBI commanders in Waco didn't have a plan to fight a fire if one broke out during the April 19, 1993, tear gassing of the Branch Davidian complex.
Koresh and 75 followers died in the wind-swept blaze.
Government attorneys have said that FBI leaders were justified in holding back firefighters because sect members had fired upon government agents in tanks earlier in the day and because the group's massive arsenal was "cooking off" in the inferno.
U.S. Attorney Mike Bradford of Beaumont and Assistant Attorney General Marie Hagen, who are representing the government in the $675 million wrongful death lawsuit, on Friday asked U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. to dismiss two of the four claims from the trial. Claims that government agents deviated from a Reno-approved plan and accelerated the destruction of the building while inserting tear gas and that the government failed to respond properly when the fire started "should be dismissed forthwith," the government motion states.
Government attorneys have said that FBI leaders in Waco should not be subjected to second-guessing on their discretionary decisions made under trying conditions. Smith did not rule on the motion.
"Our position remains as it has always been and we don't think the evidence has shown anything any different," Bradford said at the close of the first week of testimony Friday. "And that is the decision on whether or not to use certain kinds of firefighting equipment and whether to send firemen into an area in which Davidians were shooting .50-caliber weapons. Those kinds of decisions are discretionary decisions for the people who are on the scene."
Bradford said that Reno did not specifically direct that fire trucks of any kind be available on the scene.
However, Reno, Sessions, former deputy assistant FBI director Danny O. Coulson, former assistant FBI director Larry O. Potts and former deputy FBI director Floyd Clarke all testified that Reno ordered that sufficient emergency vehicles be available to handle all emergencies. They said that included fire trucks.
Under questioning from lead plaintiffs' attorney Mike Caddell of Houston, the top Justice Department officials said that cost would not have been a consideration in the decision not to use armored firefighting equipment at the end the 51-day siege, which already had cost the government $6 million.
Reno said she does not recall any discussions of using armored firefighting equipment at an April 12, 1993, meeting to discuss the Waco situation. Potts and Clarke said that if such equipment had been available, it would have been standing by.
Potts told Caddell that he was unaware of an offer from a private firm in California to loan a remote armored firefighting vehicle to the government during the siege.
Reno and the FBI leaders testified that the FBI commanders in Waco were told not to use pyrotechnic, military-style tear gas devices because of the possibility that they could spark a fire. Reno said she was told later that no such devices were used, although evidence revealed that at least two military canisters were shot into the compound on April 19, 1993.
Caddell introduced a report from an interview two FBI agents conducted with Reno in August 1993 during the investigation into the Branch Davidian tragedy. Reno indicated that she told FBI leaders to "back away" during the tear-gas operation if Branch Davidians put children in the compound's four-story tower.
"They told me I should butt out after giving okay. Can't call back. Not law enforcement official. Not on scene," the agent's hand-written notes from the Reno interview indicated.
Caddell criticized government officials for not providing the interview notes to him until two weeks ago, calling the delay "reprehensible, inexcusable and unforgivable."
"When an interview with Janet Reno in August 1993 says they told her to butt out and can't call back, I think the jury understands what that means," Caddell said. "And now to prop up Janet Reno as the be-all and end-all of what did or didn't happen at Mount Carmel in 1993, of course, is ridiculous. I think at the end of the day, the jury was dismissing Janet Reno and just ignoring her."
Reno testified that FBI supervisors in Waco had wide discretion in their actions because they were on the scene and she wasn't. She said, however, that they did not have "implied authority" to use pyrotechnic devices to deliver the tear gas.
In other testimony Friday, three FBI agents who were in tanks during the tear-gassing said the saw smoke coming from the kitchen and tower areas after canisters of tear gas were fired into the compound.
Government attorneys have said that the tear-gas operation had nothing to do with starting the fire, alleging that Koresh and his followers started fires that consumed their home.
FBI agent Tom Rowan said he fired 70 to 80 non-pyrotechnic "ferret rounds" into the complex during the early stages of the plan.
He said he saw a person firing a weapon from inside the tower, adding that he saw frequent muzzle flashes from other windows. He said he fired several ferret rounds into the window and then took cover while the person in the window returned fire.
"The person you saw firing. Was that a child?" Caddell asked.
Rowan said he couldn't tell who was firing at his tank.
The plan approved by Reno called for the slow and gradual introduction of tear gas into the compound using tanks equipped with booms to drive the Davidians out. It called for the systematic destruction of the compound only after 48 hours and it was determined that the tear-gas plan had failed.
After agents came under heavy fire from Davidians, the tear-gas assault was escalated, with agents in tanks firing the ferret rounds, agents said.
Steve McGavin, an FBI supervisory agent who helped develop the operation plan for the final day, defended orders that led to the destruction of the gym on the back side of the building. He said the tanks drove through the gym to open escape holes for Davidians and to clear a path to the tower.
"I can't say they are dismantling the gym," McGavin said. "They were ordered to try to create a path to the concrete bunker in the center of the structure because there were reports that there were people in there and the gas was not taking effect."
Cadell asked McGavin if he had watched FBI videos that showed a tank repeatedly driving into the side of the gym, backing out and driving in again.
"It is my belief that he was trying to create a path to the tower," McGavin said.
Caddell pointed out that the vehicle ramming into the side of the gym was not equipped to inject liquid tear gas.
"So if Mr. Bradford said in his opening statement that the purpose of the vehicle was to spray CS gas, that is just not right, is it?" Caddell asked.
"I would assume that he was clearing a pathway so another vehicle with gas could come around and deliver the gas," McGavin said.
Caddell asked the agents about the use of military rounds, tear gas canisters that potentially could spark a fire.
McGavin said FBI agents had several of the military-style rounds. He said most came from local law enforcement agencies which were called on to donate the items when the arsenal of ferret rounds was depleted.
Smith announced Friday morning that he had excused one of the seven jurors because of "personal problems of a substantial nature."
The judge also showed that he is becoming impatient with the pace of the trial, imposing a 40-hour time limit for parties in the lawsuit to present their cases. The judge told the plaintiffs at the lunch break that they already had used more than half their time.
WACO, Tex. - David Koresh perished in the fire that consumed the Branch Davidian compound after U.S. government agents stormed it in 1993, but his followers say they expect him to return.
They have been waiting patiently since 1993 for Mr. Koresh, the charismatic Bible teacher and prophet who died with as many as 80 others when federal agents attacked their heavily armed compound on April 19, 1993.
"We're waiting for his return," said Clive Doyle, an affable Australian who survived the conflagration that destroyed the compound and who now leads the remnants of the Davidian community. "Until then we're basically treading water."
Mr. Doyle also expects the resurrection of his daughter, Shari, who was 18 when she died in the fire.
The 20 or so followers Mr. Doyle has gathered call themselves Students of the Seven Seals, a reference to the series of events that precipitates the final Apocalypse, as described in the Bible's Book of Revelations.
Most of Mr. Doyle's congregation are people who lived through the initial government raid on Feb. 28, 1993, which killed six Davidians and four agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. Many lost family members either in that first attack or in the final conflagration.
One loyal follower, Sheila Martin, lost her husband, son and three daughters.
"We were there for the truth," said Mrs. Martin, who expresses no doubts about Mr. Koresh or his ideas.
"There are some survivors who have chosen the easy way out and who say that was all in the past but most of the survivors are hanging on for the truth," Mr. Doyle said.
Some new memb0ers have come to Waco to study with Mr. Doyle, drawn by the publicity that has surrounded the movement since the siege and by its apocalyptic, Bible-based theology.
"There's a secret, the secret is in the Bible," said Ron Goins, a neatly bearded 45-year-old who abandoned Judaism and settled on the Branch Davidians after making spiritual stops along the way, including the Hare Krishnas.
The Branch Davidians are an offshoot of the Seventh Day Adventists. The Adventist movement was born in the 19th century, when a New England prophet, William Miller, became convinced of the imminent Apocalypse after reading Revelations and the Book of Daniel.
He predicted the world would end on Oct. 22, 1844. On that day, as many as 50,000 Millerite Adventists gathered in prayer, waiting to be taken up to the Lord after having abandoned their farms and businesses.
When the sun rose on Oct. 23, a day known as the Great Disappointment, the movement initially crumbled and then was reborn as the Seventh Day Adventists. The Davidians split in 1929, returning to the older and riskier tradition of actually naming the date and time of the end of days.
Mr. Koresh saw himself as the holder of the final seal of the Apocalypse, which would bring about the end of the world.
"The doctrine is the same but we're in a holding pattern because David's not here," said Mr. Doyle.
Mr. Doyle's little flock is making a bid to reclaim some of the life it knew before the federal raid.
Only overgrown foundations remain of the original wooden dormitories and halls built at Mount Carmel -- the name of the Branch Davidian compound. During Mr. Koresh's time more than 100 people lived on the ranch and hundreds more would visit every year.
The massive, grey concrete swimming pool where the children played is now half filled with green water. Small turtles swim lazily among pieces of charred wood that occasionally bob to the surface.
But just next to the pool stands a chapel built last fall by the Davidians with the help of some local anti-government groups.
Most Davidians live in the city of Waco, about 15 km from the ranch, but there is talk of eventually rebuilding some sort of a commune at Mount Carmel.
"We're heading in that direction," Mr. Doyle said.
For many townspeople in Waco, the continued presence of the Davidians is an embarrassment and an unwelcome reminder of the events that made their town a household name around the world.
"It's not a topic that is widely discussed publicly," said Mark Gully, one of the handful of locals who have bothered to look in on the US$675-million wrongful death lawsuit filed by Davidian families against the federal government which began this week.
In the courtroom, lawyers for the federal government blame the disaster at Waco on the heads of Mr. Koresh and his disciples.
The federal agents "were doing their jobs and they faced an armed and dangerous man named David Koresh who had armed himself and his followers to the teeth," said Michael Bradford, U.S. attorney.
The trial shows the continuing gulf between the Davidians -- who see themselves as God's favourites in the upcoming doomsday -- and the world view of the rest of the country.
In 911 tapes from Feb. 28, 1993, played for the judge and jury, Mr. Koresh and his followers talk to police dispatchers while fighting off federal agents. While officers try to negotiate a ceasefire, Mr. Koresh veers off to talk about the Seven Seals, the Book of Deuteronomy and Biblical prophecy.
To Mr. Doyle's little band, that view of looking first to the Bible still holds true. They say God has delayed the Apocalypse briefly to allow for the wrongful death trial in the hopes that government officials who planned the raid would have the opportunity to repent and be saved.
But they aren't optimistic.
"We don't see a lot of remorse and regret," Mr. Doyle said. "They don't know God as the Bible teaches."
WACO, Texas - * Revelation comes from notes of an interview with the attorney general that the Branch Davidians' lawyers are using in their case against the government.
Attorney General Janet Reno said the FBI told her to "butt out" of Waco operations once she gave approval to a tank-and-tear-gas operation to force Branch Davidians out of their complex on April 19, 1993.
In notes of an interview with Reno, conducted four months after the siege ended, Reno said that since she was not on the scene, operational control of Waco events rested with FBI commanders.
"They told me I should butt out after giving OK," the interview notes said. "Can't call back."
The interview was conducted by a lawyer hired by the Justice Department to look into the siege at Waco. Over government objections, the Branch Davidians' lawyers introduced a brief segment of the notes Friday during the trial of the sect's wrongful death suit against the government.
Reno also testified in a videotaped deposition. She said on-scene FBI commanders had discretion to react to variables that came up after agents began gassing the complex.
"Anytime you effect the arrests of anyone, there are going to be variables," Reno said.
The plan called for using converted tanks to put tear gas into the complex over a 48-hour period. After six hours, the complex caught fire and about 80 Branch Davidians died, some from gunshots but most from the fire.
The suit contends the government deviated from the tear-gas plan when it tore down the complex, prompting the Branch Davidians to react violently. The suit also alleges that the attack may have started the fire.
Reno said the tanks were not demolishing the complex but were ramming into it to deliver gas to areas where the Branch Davidians were hiding. She said the maneuver was necessary because the gas wasn't having an effect and because the Branch Davidians had barricaded the doors.
"If they were concerned about just tearing down the building, they would have commenced from the outside," Reno said.
The interview notes said Reno considered the idea of building a prison around the complex. She decided against it because she was told the Branch Davidians had long-range weapons, including a .50-caliber rifle, that would have required too large a perimeter.
Near the end of a 51-day siege, Reno was told the Branch Davidians were equipped to hold out for as long as a year.
"If the food supply would have run out in a few months as opposed to a year or if their water supply could have been cut off she would have waited," the notes said. "She also thought that even at that point they might walk in and find a lot of the Davidians dead."
An FBI agent who fired tear gas during the operation testified that his armored vehicle was probably equipped with fire-causing military tear-gas rounds. But the agent, Tom Rowan, said he was sure that the only rounds he fired were plastic "ferret" rounds that would not start a fire.
Rowan was a member of the FBI's hostage rescue team. He fired 70 to 80 tear-gas rounds from a grenade launcher through a 6-inch-wide port from inside the armored vehicle. Rowan said that when he looked into the windows of the complex, he spotted muzzle flashes of the Branch Davidians firing guns at the tanks.
WACO – The FBI's deputy tactical commander conceded Friday that the Washington-approved plan for ending the Branch Davidian siege didn't call for sending tanks in to begin demolishing the sect's embattled compound until it had been tear-gassed for 48 hours.
But Attorney General Janet Reno said in videotaped testimony that the plan she approved for the 1993 operation included some discretion for the FBI's commanders in Waco. She added that she viewed the commanders' decision to send tanks into the building as part of their effort to get gas into areas where the Davidians were hiding – not a bid to demolish the sect's flimsy wooden building.
"There was a recognition that the people on the scene could see what was happening, where we could not see what was happening," she said.
Her testimony came near the end of the first week of the Davidians' wrongful-death lawsuit against the government. It also ended a day focused on key decisions by on-scene FBI commanders Jeffrey Jamar and Dick Rogers in carrying out the final April 19, 1993, assault on the compound.
Lawyers for the sect allege that the two FBI officials went beyond their authority and beyond the scope of a Washington-approved gassing plan when they decided to send tanks into the building about four hours after the gas assault began.
They have alleged that tanks smashing deep into the front of the building and demolishing half of the gymnasium in the rear may have prompted a few Davidians to try to ward off the government forces by starting fires. Their $675 million lawsuit also alleges that Mr. Jamar and Mr. Rogers violated Ms. Reno's orders by not having firefighting equipment ready before starting their assault when fire was a known threat.
Government lawyers have asserted that none of the three blazes that broke out shortly after noon on April 19 was caused by government actions. They argue that sect members alone should be held responsible for the setting the compound fires and the deaths of 80 Davidians that followed.
Lawyers for the sect have charged that FBI agents possibly fired some tear gas canisters into the compound kitchen that were capable of sparking fires. During sometimes-caustic examinations of several FBI agents, lead lawyer Michael Caddell suggested Friday that the team assigned to the back side of the building may have fired a pyrotechnic gas round just before a fire was spotted in that area.
FBI officials denied for more than six years that pyrotechnic tear gas was used at Waco. They reversed that last August after a former senior FBI official told The Dallas Morning News that at least two of the military gas grenades were fired April 19.
The agents who testified Friday each denied that any of the pyrotechnic gas rounds were used in the rear of the compound.
"We did not need to use them. We did not have the desire to use them, and we did not fire military rounds that day. We did not fire military rounds that day," testified Thomas G. Rowan, an FBI hostage rescue team member who fired gas rounds from a Bradley fighting vehicle.
But Mr. Rowan and two other agents did acknowledge that they quickly ran through their supply of non-pyrotechnic gas grenades on April 19, firing 400 at the building between 6 a.m. and noon. Steve McGavin, former deputy hostage rescue team commander, also confirmed that the FBI had to seek new supplies at mid-morning on April 19. He said some that arrived from local and state police were pyrotechnic. But he maintained that none of those gas projectiles were sent into the field for use against the compound.
Mr. McGavin, Mr. Rowan and a third agent who testified Friday admitted that some of their descriptions of what they saw and did on April 19 conflict with their testimony in earlier depositions.
Asked to change account
Mr. Rowan conceded that he had asked to change his deposition only a few days before going to court to testify. He acknowledged that he now wanted to say that his Bradley probably did have military gas rounds on board because other Bradleys at Waco had some of the grenades. Other agents assigned to the vehicle have said it carried none of the rounds, but some FBI records from 1993 suggest otherwise.
Michael Sackett, a second FBI agent called to testify Friday, initially told jurors that he "wasn't entirely sure" but believed the tank he saw smashing down the compound gym on April 19 had been sent in to insert gas. Jurors were then read a potion of his earlier deposition in which he had said he believed the tank was going into the gym "to take down parts of the building."
On Thursday, former FBI official Danny Coulson testified that on-scene commanders did not follow the original tear gas plan and their actions in sending tanks into the rear of the compound appeared to be a deviation. Government lawyers and FBI commanders Jamar and Rogers have long insisted that what happened at the gym was not a "demolition" effort but a bid to get gas deeper into the compound.
Mr. Caddell has questioned that, noting that the tank sent into the gym wasn't equipped to spray gas and that an internal memo describedits actions as a dismantling or demolition mission.
Late Friday, he read FBI award recommendation to jurors. He also recited excerpts from areport in which a Miami-based FBI SWAT commander said after the siege that "everything went according to plan except for the timetable that was set for the demolition of the building. ...The actual dismantling took place sooner than 48 hours."
Mr. Caddell spent most of Friday afternoon playing videotaped excerpts of statements by the FBI's senior leaders during the Waco siege and the March deposition of Ms. Reno. The excerpts focused on Ms. Reno's statements that she expected adequate emergency equipment to be on hand before the assault and the FBI leaders' understanding that her directive included fire fighting equipment.
Former FBI Director William Sessions said he wasn't told there was no plan to fight a fire, and other senior FBI officials said they didn't recall anyone advising Ms. Reno of that decision. Among documents introduced Friday was a phone message taken at the FBI's headquarters command center on April 7 announcing that Mr. Jamar and Mr. Rogers had decided not to try to fight a fire if one broke out during the gas operation.
The FBI leaders said they weren't aware that the Washington, D.C,. fire department had two armored firetrucks in 1993 or that a California firm had offered free use of Czech-made, remote-controlled armored firefighting vehicles if the FBI arranged to have them flown to Waco.
Judge grows impatient
At the close of Friday's proceedings, the government trial team again asked U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith to dismiss the sect's assertions about tank demolition and failure to have fire equipment on hand. They have argued that those actions amounted to judgment calls and are thus protected by broad federal laws barring most lawsuits against federal agencies and employees.
Judge Smith had denied several similar motions in the month's leading up to trial, but he appeared close to dismissing those claims when he arrived in court Thursday morning. He relented after a private chambers conference in which plaintiffs' lawyers showed him notes of a 1993 interview in which the attorney general recalled the FBI telling her "to butt out" after she OK'd their gas assault.
In Friday's pleading, government lawyers argued that Ms. Reno was only expressing her understanding that she would not be directing the operation once it began, and they argued that even negligent or ill-informed decision-making by the attorney general was protected by federal law.
Judge Smith appeared to grow impatient with the slow pace of proceedings Friday, announcing a 40-hour limit for each side to present their cases. He also granted a government request to exclude testimony of a structural engineer who was ready to describe the damage inflicted on the compound by FBI tanks.
Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, attorney for many of the Davidians who survived the siege, said he fears the judge's new time limits on the trial will cripple his ability to present a case. He noted that Mr. Caddell has already taken about 24 hours of the plaintiff's time allotment and has said he has at least several more days of testimony and evidence.
"If he sticks to it, it will be impossible to put on a fair trial," Mr. Clark said, noting that he wants to present testimony of seven or eight Davidians and several experts in subjects ranging from religion to the effects of the FBI's tear gas. "I'm hoping that he'll relent. ...You're supposed to have a right to your day in court."
Waco, FBI and the Branch Davidians: Updates
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