Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991                   TAG: 9102120568
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PHOENIX                                LENGTH: Medium

TWO ARIZONA MEN HAVE BEEN ORDERED HELD WITHOUT

Meanwhile, authorities here will try to get the third defendant and alleged mastermind, Charles Edward Gresham, 57, of Ellicott City, Md., flown to Phoenix to discuss variances in statements made to the FBI, a prosecutor said.

U.S. Magistrate Morton Sitver on Monday rejected a motion to drop charges against Cecil Ross, 31, of Glendale and Joseph Wayne Openshaw, 36, of St. Johns. Sitver also rejected defense contentions that the government's interest in the case had been fanned by the fear of terrorism.

Without the publicity generated by the tank farm's location 10 miles from the Norfolk Naval Base, "it's just another case," said Larry Debus, an attorney for Ross.

"It's not a big case. They're not Iraqis. This isn't terrorism," Debus added.

Debus and Tom Henze, the attorney for Openshaw, described the defendants' roots in Arizona, families and financial inability to flee to another country. Henze acknowledged that Openshaw had business connections around the globe but said that confiscating his client's passport should be enough.

Nevertheless, Sitver ordered against release on the basis that both men were "flight risks and dangers to the community."

Joseph Lodge, an assistant U.S. attorney, said federal agents would like to question Gresham in Phoenix about conflicting versions of how much information Ross and Openshaw have given FBI agents.

Gresham appeared earlier Monday before Magistrate Paul M. Rosenberg of Baltimore, who ordered him held for a detention hearing Wednesday.

The three are charged with conspiracy to commit a bombing to further a wire-fraud and mail-fraud scheme.

Federal authorities alleged after the arrests Friday night and Saturday that Gresham wanted to ignite two storage tanks at Allied Terminals Inc., an industrial complex, to collect $2.7 million in insurance.

Six pipe bombs were found in the complex Feb. 4, including several on a tank of methanol, which would have had enough explosive force to consume the less volatile sodium-sulfide solution that Gresham was paying to store in a nearby tank.

According to an affidavit filed in Virginia, Gresham more than doubled the insurance on the chemical to $2.7 million in December and told his insurer he had a contract to sell the solution to a company in China.

The affidavit says Openshaw told authorities that Gresham expected to realize about $1 million from the insurance carrier, after expenses, and offered Openshaw and Ross $250,000 each.

The affidavit also says that an informant from Virginia Beach, Va., told the FBI Gresham had been unsuccessful in selling the sodium-sulfide solution and was more than $66,000 behind in lease payments.