ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 29, 1996 TAG: 9610290080
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: Associated Press
For 88 days, Richard Jewell stoically stood his ground, professing his innocence while he was branded the FBI's chief suspect in the Olympic park pipe bombing. Finally cleared by prosecutors, the weight of suspicion lifted, he let his guard down and cried.
The tears came Monday as he recalled the bodies of friends injured by the blast, and when he turned to his mother, who buried her head in her hand. ``Mom, thanks for standing by me and believing in me,'' he said, his voice choking. ``I love you.''
Another emotion - anger - emerged as he lashed out at reporters and investigators who had depicted him as the man who brought the specter of terrorism to the Summer Olympics. But at the end of the news conference, he calmly delivered a message:
``I thank God that it has now ended and that you now know what I have known all along. I am an innocent man.''
The July 27 bomb blast at Centennial Olympic Park - the informal gathering place for spectators at the Games - killed one woman outright, was blamed for a cameraman's death and injured more than 100.
Jewell initially was hailed as a hero for alerting authorities to a suspicious knapsack and helping to evacuate the area. He gave numerous interviews until, three days after the bombing, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported he was a suspect.
Reporters staked out his apartment complex for days and followed his every move, while Jewell refused to comment. His mother, Barbara, tearfully begged President Clinton in August to ``end this nightmare.''
``I felt like a hunted animal, followed constantly, waiting to be killed,'' Jewell said. ``The media said I fit the profile of a lone bomber. That was a lie. The media said I was a frustrated police wanna-be. That was a lie. I was, then and now, a law enforcement officer.''
Saturday, federal prosecutors gave Jewell's attorneys a letter clearing Jewell as a suspect. To Jewell, the letter is a weak attempt at an apology.
``While the government can tell you that I am an innocent man, the government's letter cannot give me back my good name or my reputation,'' he said. ``In their mad rush to fulfill their own personal agendas, the FBI and the media almost destroyed me and my mother.''
His lawyers plan to sue the Journal-Constitution and NBC for comments Tom Brokaw made in early news reports about the bombing. The Journal-Constitution on Monday defended its stories about Jewell as ``accurate and appropriate.''
A lawsuit against the FBI is being considered.
``I don't have enough words, I can't cuss enough, to describe the way they have treated this man,'' said Watson Bryant, one of Jewell's lawyers.
He also lashed out at the FBI over affidavits released Monday that were used to gain warrants for searches of Jewell's home and other property in the days after the bombing, saying they are ``full of half-truths.''
The papers, which a judge had ordered unsealed with names blacked out, quote several acquaintances about Jewell's fascination with police work. They also quote witnesses who saw Jewell in the vicinity of the explosion, but none who saw him handle the bomb.
``I think the American public should be shocked at how little it takes for the government to get a search warrant,'' Bryant said.
FBI spokesman Jay Spadafore declined to respond.
As he did after the bombing, Jewell again Monday tried to place the hero label on others, such as officers who placed their bodies between the package and the crowd.
``When the explosion occurred, I saw my fellow officers and friends flying through the air. I saw people lying on the ground hurt, badly hurt,'' he said in a trembling voice. ``I moved people away from the unattended package, and I evacuated people from the sound tower. All I did was my job.''
What Jewell wants now, he said, is a chance to restore his image and to try to pursue a career in the work that he loves.
``Anybody who knew me knows I could not hurt another person,'' he said. ``I love people. I love children. I am a public servant. I don't look at law enforcement as a job.''
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Richard Jewell talks about friends injured by theby CNBblast. color.