ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9607010090
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WOODBRIDGE
SOURCE: Associated Press
Police say they believe explosives found in lockers on two Northern Virginia Community College campuses were planted by a former FBI agent accused of abducting his estranged wife's minister.
A pipe bomb was found late Thursday night in a locker on the Woodbridge campus, where Eugene Bennett's estranged wife, Marguerite, works as a police lieutenant. A search turned up more explosive material in a locker on the Annandale campus.
Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert said he intends to seek charges in connection with the campus bomb against Eugene Bennett, who is being held without bond.
Northern Virginia Community College officials told employees about the incident Friday morning, said spokeswoman Shelly Dutton. She said college officials had not decided whether to review campus security procedures.
``It's very unfortunate, and we are quite concerned,'' Dutton said. ``Our police continue to work ... to make sure our employees and students are not in any danger.''
Police said they started searching the campuses based on evidence gathered during their investigation of Eugene Bennett. Police have said Bennett strapped what he said were explosives around the waist of his wife's minister on June 23 in a scheme to lure Marguerite Bennett to a Manassas church.
Police are investigating whether Bennett intended to kill his wife, with whom he has carried on a bitter divorce and custody battle since the couple separated in 1992.
Bennett is charged with threats to bomb, abduction, burglary while armed, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He is undergoing a court-ordered mental evaluation.
In 1993, Marguerite Bennett told the FBI that he had stolen $17,000 from the agency. Eugene Bennett pleaded guilty to falsifying an expense voucher and obstructing justice and was sentenced to a year in prison.
In court papers filed during his 1993 federal trial, Bennett said his wife had accused him of being a ``psychotic undercover agent with multiple criminal personalities.'' Bennett's attorney said last week that his client heard voices and believed he had an evil alternate personality named Ed.
In a phone interview from the county jail Thursday, Bennett told the Washington Post that ``long-term undercover work doesn't do anyone's psychological being any good ... [but] I don't think the neighbors will tell you I'm a crazy, psychotic out-of-control person.''
Said Ebert: ``This is the work of a legally sane person. How you define rational is subject to some conjecture at this point.''
Bennett has repeatedly alleged, in court papers and the interview, that his wife, also a former FBI agent, is a lesbian. He said one of her lovers was crime novelist Patricia Cornwell of Richmond. Neither Marguerite Bennett nor Cornwell's agent would comment on Bennett's allegations.
``I'm not a gay basher,'' Eugene Bennett said. ``But I don't want to be married to a lesbian or have my children raised by one.''
Meredith Duffy, 22, the nanny who cared for the Bennetts' two daughters after the couple separated, said her memories of Eugene Bennett's ``bizarre'' behavior and his anger over his wife's alleged affair with Cornwell remain vivid.
``It was a very, very bitter separation,'' said Duffy, who quit after six months. ``He had a hatred for her. He was obsessed with it. I got the impression she wanted to go on with her life and he just couldn't handle it.''
Duffy said Bennett had ``violent mood swings'' and gave her a 26-page document describing, in minute detail, how to care for his daughters.
Although the children were 4 and 6, Duffy said, she was instructed to feed them only Gerber baby food and to ``supervise'' them when they walked up and down the home's inside stairways.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 linesby CNB