Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 20, 1995 TAG: 9509200066
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
From the prosecution's table, Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Wolthuis is trying a simple firearm possession case.
Across the room, defendant William Stump II, his mother by his side providing assistance, is arguing a case of government entrapment, a conspiracy between an overeager informant and an ambitious ATF agent to set him up.
Stump was an active gun-control opponent and worker in Steve Fast's unsuccessful campaign against Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, in 1994. He maintains that Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Special Agent Scott Fairburn orchestrated a plan to lure Stump into the Blue Ridge Hunt Club, a citizens' militia in Pulaski County, and get him to commit weapon violations.
Stump hammered away at the government's informant, Raeford Nelson Thompson, during cross-examination Tuesday. Wolthuis had introduced portions of the nearly 18 hours of tapes Thompson made while wearing a hidden recorder to hunt-club meetings.
The tapes indicate Stump knew that James Roy Mullins, club founder, was working on a project where "the guns don't make any noise." Thompson also testified that Stump took two guns with homemade silencers to the club's second meeting and fired one of them.
Stump is charged with conspiracy to violate firearm laws and with possession of two silencers that had no serial numbers and were not registered.
Thompson went to a friend who was a state trooper in the fall of 1993, months before Mullins founded the hunt club. Mullins said the group was formed to work politically for change in gun-control laws. The government alleges the paramilitary group was formed to train for armed combat with government agents.
Thompson agreed to work undercover for the ATF; besides a recorder, he wore a transmitter for agents staked out nearby to monitor the club's meetings.
Thompson acknowledged, as shown by transcripts of the tapes, that he urged members to come up with a name for the club and pick officers. But he denied that he manipulated and prompted Mullins into discussing guerrilla warfare and illegal activity at secretly recorded meetings.
Stump questioned State Trooper Michael Freeman about his advice to Thompson when Thompson came to him with information that Mullins was making unregistered silencers. Stump asked why Freeman did not arrest Mullins immediately, but instead allowed the weapon violations to continue and more people to become involved. Freeman compared it to a drug conspiracy where police may wait and monitor an organization before arresting people.
After a tumultuous opening day in the trial Monday, Stump's demeanor in the courtroom was more polished Tuesday. Several of his objections were sustained by U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser, and he was able to raise questions about the motivation of the government's key witness.
He couldn't resist, however, when Fairburn and a bailiff were holding the guns and silencers - evidence in the case - to bring them to a witness to identify.
"Bailiff, you should arrest those men," Stump announced. "They're possessing those silencers. That's a violation of the same statute I'm charged with - that's 10 years" prison time.
"Sit down, Mr. Stump," Kiser said.
Another issue arose in what is already an unusual case. The son of one juror recently was indicted on drug charges by Wolthuis' office. Neither side was aware of the potential conflict until asked about it by a reporter Tuesday.
Potential jurors are asked if they have any business pending before the U.S. Attorney's Office, but are not asked whether family members do. Kiser seated one alternate in the case, so a problem with one juror likely would not disrupt the trial.
Before the trial began, Kiser denied a request by The Roanoke Times that he lift his order forbidding reporters from interviewing anyone outside the second floor courtroom.
by CNB