ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 9, 1997 TAG: 9704090046
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Agents tried to get him to waive his Miranda rights by saying they were making a training video.
Justice Department investigators concluded that FBI agents made ``a major error in judgment'' by using a ruse in asking Richard Jewell to waive his right to a lawyer during questioning about the Olympic bombing.
FBI Director Louis Freeh disclosed that finding in an internal FBI memo in which he sought to quell grumbling and ``exaggerated rumors'' among bureau field managers over the proposed discipline of two agents and three supervisors for the Jewell incident. One supervisor, David Tubbs, has appealed his proposed punishment.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of Freeh's April 1 memo Tuesday.
``No one is claiming that the use of a ruse to encourage a suspect to talk is necessarily improper,'' Freeh wrote to FBI managers. But he said Justice investigators concluded that FBI agents erred badly when Jewell's ``Miranda warnings were deceptively presented as part of the framework of a training video.''
The Supreme Court's Miranda ruling requires that a person in custody be advised of the right to a lawyer and that if that right is waived any subsequent statements can be used in court against the person. Courts have thrown out statements from defendants who were not warned.
The FBI agents who interviewed Jewell at the FBI's Atlanta office three days after the July 27, 1996, blast in Centennial Olympic Park pretended they wanted his help in making a training film. Jewell, a park security guard, had discovered the bomb in a knapsack and helped move people away just before its explosion killed one person and injured more than 100.
Endorsing the Justice criticism, Freeh wrote, ``No prosecutor could go into court, and no Director of the FBI could go before Congress, and claim that necessary constitutional warnings are adequately conveyed by telling a suspect that he is an actor in a training video and that he is being presented Miranda warnings `just like it's [a] real official interview.'''
LENGTH: Short : 47 linesby CNB