Investigation of 1988 blast that killed six firefighters is still
wrapped in mystery
Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Justice opened an
investigation into possible flaws in the prosecution of five people
convicted in the 1988 deaths of six Kansas City firefighters.
But the department has yet to release a report, and advocates for
the defendants in the case are starting to question the extent of the
effort so far.
Justice Department officials in Washington continue to decline to
comment on where the investigation stands, when it might be completed,
or to even confirm that it is — or was — under way.
“They should have done something by now,” said Senior U.S. District
Judge Scott Wright, one of many legal experts with longstanding
concerns about how the government handled the case.
The inquiry involves the federal investigation of five people who
were convicted in the 1988 explosion-related deaths of the
firefighters. The trial occurred in 1997, nine years after the crime.
All five, one of whom died recently in prison, were sentenced to life
with no possibility of parole.
“For those of us who are concerned about what really happened out
on that hill in 1988, this is taking too long,” said U.S. Rep. Emanuel
Cleaver of Kansas City, who supported the re-investigation of the
case. “Justice delayed could be interpreted as justice denied.”
Killed in the blast were firefighters Thomas Fry, Gerald Halloran,
Luther Hurd, James Kilventon Jr., Robert D. McKarnin and Michael
Oldham. They were attempting to put out a fire in a trailer containing
explosives on a south Kansas City highway construction site.
The Justice Department’s inquiry was sparked by a July 2008 story
in The Kansas City Star in which 15 witnesses alleged that a federal
investigator pressured them to lie. A few days later, the then U.S.
attorney, John F. Wood, citing the newspaper’s findings, asked for a
“thorough and unbiased” review of the matter.
According to those who have been interviewed, the two investigators
assigned to the re-investigation are Pamela McCabe, a special agent
for the department’s Office of Inspector General, and John Cox, a
prosecutor in the department’s criminal division. Both have traveled
to Kansas City at least once to interview witnesses and have spoken
with others by phone, those interviewed said.
It is unclear how broad the investigation is, but those interviewed
said they were asked numerous questions about whether they were
pressured to lie or perjure themselves at trial.
What is clear is that the latest investigation has affected
attempts by the Midwestern Innocence Project to gather documents in
its efforts to review the case, said Tiffany Murphy, the project’s
legal director.
“There are vital documents that were turned over to the
investigators that we can’t get now because of the ongoing
investigation,” Murphy said, “because it’s now an open case again.”
•••
Pat O’Connor, a private citizen who has taken an interest in the
case and been an advocate for the defendants, said he learned several
months ago that Justice Department investigators had completed a
preliminary report and it is being reviewed by their supervisors.
O’Connor, a former newspaper publisher, has been working to free
the defendants: Frank Sheppard, Bryan Sheppard, Richard Brown and
Darlene Edwards. Earl “Skip” Sheppard died last year at the Bureau of
Prisons’ medical center in North Carolina.
Before their trial, all of the defendants refused offers to testify
against one another in return for lighter sentences, and all have
insisted since their arrests that they are innocent.
Prosecutors had no physical evidence linking the defendants to the
crime, and no eyewitnesses came forward for the 1997 trial. Most of
the government’s evidence was based on testimony from numerous
witnesses who claimed that one or more of the defendants admitted
involvement in the crime.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Becker, who prosecuted the case, has
acknowledged that while many of those witnesses were not sterling
citizens, they told consistent stories. Many stood behind their
testimony over the years, but the testimony of others was challenged
at the trial by defense attorneys, or comes from people who now say
they were pressured to lie.
“In not interviewing some of the key figures (who claimed they were
pressured), the new federal investigation could not be considered
complete,” O’Connor said in a recent interview.
He is hopeful Justice Department investigators will eventually
interview all witnesses who alleged they were pressured by federal
authorities. O’Connor also wants them to explore an alternate theory
of the crime: that a security guard may have played a role in setting
arson fires at the construction site, including the one that led to
the deadly explosion.
The Star’s four-year investigation found four people who alleged
that two female guards — one of whom wasn’t on duty — later
acknowledged involvement in the crime.
One person, whose alleged coercion by federal authorities became
part of a court record, said he has never been contacted by the
investigators. Alan Bethard told The Star that he was willing to meet
with Justice Department officials at any time and any place.
“I don’t understand why nobody’s talked to me,” Bethard said.
In the early 1990s, Bethard said federal authorities pressured him
to say that one of the defendants admitted involvement in the
explosion, even though he never heard such a statement. After that, he
said, authorities made good on a threat.
Bethard said authorities dropped a stolen-car charge against him
that was pending in state court and refiled it in federal court, where
penalties are harsher. Bethard pleaded guilty, but Wright, the federal
judge in the case, chastised the government publicly for trying to
force Bethard to change his story.
Wright threatened to dismiss the case as “vindictive prosecution”
and told Bethard, “I’m sure the (federal) Sentencing Commission would
never in their wildest dreams anticipate that the government would
pull something like this, like they’ve pulled on you.”
Becker, who prosecuted the five defendants in the 1997 trial,
denies that the government retaliated against Bethard. He said
authorities were only seeking Bethard’s cooperation.
“We call it an inducement,” Becker said in June 2008, adding that
Bethard committed a crime and “it is our obligation and duty to go out
and prosecute violations of federal criminal law.”
•••
Many witnesses have told The Star that excessive pressure in the
original investigation came from Dave True, now a retired agent for
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
True has repeatedly denied that he coerced or intimidated witnesses
and has said, “There’s no question in my mind that the right people
are in jail.” True declined to comment for this story.
Wood, the former U.S. attorney who requested the current inquiry,
also declined to comment because “I wouldn’t want to interfere.”
U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips acknowledged that a Justice Department
investigation has been under way. She issued a statement recently
saying her Kansas City office has fully cooperated.
“But in order to preserve the integrity of the process, we have
consistently declined to make any public statement,” Phillips said.
Cleaver, who was mayor pro tem at the time of the explosion, said
two years ago when the Justice Department launched its inquiry that it
was an appropriate response to the newspaper’s findings.
“If we fail to investigate this now, it is one of the most blatant
malfunctions of justice we have ever seen in this city,” he said.
Cleaver also said then that if the new inquiry didn’t go far
enough, he would call on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to ensure
that it does.
In an interview Friday, Cleaver said recent efforts by his office
to determine where the Justice Department investigation stands have
gone unanswered.
“I do want some closure to this, as do the families of those who
were killed, and the citizens who believe that we didn’t have all the
information on the case at the time of the convictions,” he said.
Meanwhile, Jean Paul Bradshaw, who was U.S. attorney during part of
the original firefighters investigation, said he was surprised that
the latest inquiry has taken so long.
“I would think that if they were going to say no wrongdoing
occurred, they should have done so sooner than this,” he said.
Bradshaw speculated that if the investigators had found any
problems, “they may be talking about what to do, because it’s never a
positive thing to let something like this hang this long.”
Cheryl Pilate, a local defense lawyer who is representing one of
the defendants, said there are “a lot more people with pertinent
information who want to talk to the investigators.”
But at this point, Pilate added, “we have to assume they have done
a good-faith job and that they just have limited tools to work with,
limited time and a limited ability to travel.”
The Justice Department investigators also are working without
subpoena power, she noted.
“I am very much hoping this is a first step and that they
recognized in the screening process that there are enough problems
here to set off alarm bells,” Pilate said.
George Kendall, a New York lawyer and criminal justice expert, said
inquiries into possible wrongdoing in federal convictions “don’t
happen often enough.”
When they do, he added, “they move slowly.”
How you can help
Anyone with information about the case may contact the Office of the
Inspector General at 312-886-7050.
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