Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 23, 1995 TAG: 9505230102
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DETROIT LENGTH: Medium
``There is not an iota of evidence that he is a danger to others,'' U.S. District Judge Paul Borman ruled. Nichols has been held since two days after the bombing on charges of making small explosives at his Michigan farm.
During the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Cares suggested Nichols may have played a role in the Oklahoma City attack along with his brother, Terry, and Timothy McVeigh, but he wasn't specific.
``James Nichols himself engaged in rhetoric of violence,'' Cares said. ``If it was just rhetoric, we wouldn't be here today. But he and Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh turned those words into action. Terry Nichols and McVeigh are charged with taking the final step.''
The prosecutor offered no immediate evidence for his assertion, and Nichols' lawyer, Robert Elsey, objected to the statement.
The judge sustained the objection, agreeing there was no evidence offered directly linking James Nichols to the bombing.
Terry Nichols and McVeigh are the only two suspects charged so far in the April 19 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building.
Earlier in the hearing, FBI agent Patrick Wease testified that James Nichols told a neighbor that he and a group called ``the Patriots'' would take over the government as soon as there were enough members and kill ``cops, judges and lawyers.''
In ordering James Nichols freed, Borman acknowledged that he had relationships with his brother and McVeigh. ``But more important, the court notes that this defendant, James Nichols, is not charged in Oklahoma with that crime,'' the judge said.
He also noted that James Nichols had shown a measure of respect for government by submitting to interviews and cooperating with agents searching his farm.
Borman ordered James Nichols be freed today into the custody of a couple who live near his home in Decker, about 75 miles north of Detroit.
The judge ordered him to limit his travel to certain counties between Detroit and Decker and wear an electronic monitoring device at certain times. He was also barred from getting a passport.
``It's a great day for James Nichols,'' Elsey said after the hearing. ``It's a great day for the American Constitution. And it's a great day for the concept of limited federal power.''
In Oklahoma City, meanwhile, authorities said a man whose whereabouts can't be accounted for may be missing in the rubble. That would bring the death toll to 168.
Also, demolition crews placed the explosives that will bring down the bombed-out building today. The building is scheduled to be demolished between 8 and 8:15 a.m. Eastern time with more than 100 pounds of dynamite in strategic locations.
The nine-story structure should come down in eight seconds, after which crews hope to retrieve the remains of two women whose bodies were never recovered - and possibly those of 54-year-old Alvin Justes, who lived a few blocks from the building and has been missing since the day before the blast.
James Nichols has been held for a month on charges that he conspired with his brother and McVeigh to make and detonate illegal explosives on his farm in past years. The charges are not directly related to the Oklahoma bombing.
McVeigh and Terry Nichols could get the death penalty if convicted. They are being held at a federal prison in El Reno, Okla.
by CNB