ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 2, 1997 TAG: 9702030109
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DENVER
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
AN EXPERT from the Department of Justice's Anti-Terrorism Unit says the forensic evidence against Timothy McVeigh is not tainted, despite sweeping allegations of contamination at the FBI lab.
Confident that scientific findings from the troubled FBI crime laboratory will hold up in the Oklahoma City bombing trial, federal prosecutors plan to use six pieces of forensic evidence that they believe positively link Timothy McVeigh to the crime - including a pair of earplugs he allegedly wore to soften the deafening noise of the blast.
Other pieces of evidence that the government believes are central to its case against McVeigh include traces of residue allegedly found in the pockets of his jeans and on two T-shirts he was wearing, his knife and the knife's sheath, according to documents and sources involved in the case.
Prosecutors consider that these ``positive hits'' not only conclusively prove that McVeigh helped mix the ammonium nitrate and fuel oil that made up the bomb but also that he helped stack barrels containing the bomb ingredients into the back of a rented Ryder truck, the documents and sources said.
In addition, prosecutors plan to use bomb residue discovered by FBI laboratory technicians inside pieces of the back of the truck. That finding, prosecutors contend, puts to rest any doubt that the truck McVeigh allegedly rented delivered a deadly mixture of explosives to the front of the Alfred P. Murrah Building the morning of April 19, 1995.
Beth Wilkinson, a special assistant U.S. attorney from the Department of Justice's Anti-Terrorism Unit, has told the federal court that the government's forensic evidence is not tainted by alleged contamination and other control problems at the FBI lab, documents show.
Out of 404 high-explosive tests conducted on evidence at the lab, ``there are only six reports of positive residue, high-explosive residue in this entire case,'' Wilkinson told the court. Those numbers demonstrate, she said, that there was no widespread contamination of evidence at the lab - as McVeigh's lead defense attorney, Stephen Jones, has argued.
Jones is mounting a vigorous legal and public relations challenge to the scientific evidence collected against his client. He is arguing that there was broad contamination of evidence in the FBI lab.
The claim is borne out in a general way by some senior Justice Department officials who said that an ongoing Justice Department inspector general's investigation will document shortcomings at the lab. But those officials have not said that the investigation turned up problems linked specifically to the evidence in the Oklahoma City bombing case.
According to sources and documents, the pieces of evidence include:
* A pair of earplugs, recovered by authorities after McVeigh was arrested about 80 minutes after the bombing.
The prosecution hopes to show at the trial that the plugs tested positive for NG, or nitroglycerine, which is used in high explosives and the production of dynamite, and EGDN, or ethylene glycol dinitrate, also used in dynamite.
In addition, they plan to provide testimony that the residue traces found on the plugs are ``consistent with'' PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, a high-explosive compound that frequently has been found in past bombings.
* McVeigh's jeans. The left pocket reportedly gave a positive ``identification'' for NG and a finding ``consistent with'' PETN. The right pocket tested positive for both NG and PETN.
* McVeigh's T-shirt with blue sleeves. Steven Burmeister, a chief analyst in the lab's chemistry and toxicology units, confirmed that PETN was identified on the shirt, according to the documents.
* A second T-shirt worn that day by McVeigh. It, too, was identified by Burmeister as carrying traces of PETN.
* McVeigh's knife and the knife's sheath. Lab reports show that the knife blade gave a test result ``consistent'' with PETN and that the sheath registered ``consistent'' with NG.
*Pieces from the inside of the rented Ryder truck box. The back of the truck allegedly carried 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil mixed into barrels, with the barrels wrapped by a detonator cord. Debris from the bombing scene allegedly proved positive for NG and other compounds.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 linesby CNB