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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 23, 1995                   TAG: 9508230071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: OKLAHOMA CITY                                LENGTH: Medium

BOMB LAWYERS ON ATTACK

Arguing that no Oklahoma City judge can possibly give their client a fair trial, attorneys for Timothy McVeigh on Tuesday graphically recreated the pandemonium on the morning of April 19 when the federal office building here exploded and ``a tidal wave of trauma rolled over'' the nearby courthouse.

In court papers urging that all eight federal judges here be kept from the case, the lawyers described the horror that descended.

More than 100 windows shattered and fell into the court building. Doors jammed. Ceiling tiles tumbled down. Bookcases were knocked off walls, sending heavy law books smashing to the floor.

Out into the streets ran terror-stricken courthouse employees - some injured, some to learn later they had lost relatives and friends in the bombing.

``The shock wave of the explosion blew into and through the courthouse,'' said McVeigh's attorney, Stephen Jones. ``The building trembled as if in an earthquake. A tidal wave of trauma rolled over the United States Courthouse.''

To Jones and Michael Tigar, the attorney for co-defendant Terry Nichols, the issue is central to their defense. It also shows the full-tilt strategy they are pursuing against the government's massive circumstantial case.

The attorneys are attacking everything: the suitability of the judges, the site for the trial, the plan to hold a single trial, the death penalty the government is expected to seek, the motives of the witnesses and virtually all other aspects of the process - to focus attention away from their clients.

Jones and Tigar are not, at least not yet, challenging the mountain of publicity about the bombing as a reason to move the trial.

Prosecutors, led by U.S. Attorney Patrick Ryan, maintain the trial can be conducted here. They argue the ``courthouse family'' is not biased against the defendants, and a fair and impassioned jury can be empaneled.

Ryan's spokesman, assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Mullins, said Tuesday, ``[Ryan] believes that a fair trial can be held in Oklahoma City. But he also believes that the trial should at a minimum be in the state of Oklahoma.

``He believes there should be access to the trial by the people that were victimized by the crime. Federal law gives them the right to be present and participate in some portions of the case.''

U.S. District Judge Wayne E. Alley, assigned to hear the case, has ordered both sides to begin preparing for pretrial scheduling and other matters as though he expects the trial will be conducted in his courtroom in the downtown courthouse.

He has even taken the unusual step of filing his own declaration with the court clerk, stating he intends ``to conduct a trial in a fair, objective and dignified manner in full realization that the rights of all parties should be scrupulously observed.''

The government has 20 days to respond to the defense motion before the judge makes a ruling.