A federal judge Friday brushed aside claims of unfair treatment by Oklahoma City bombing suspect Terry Nichols and ordered him held without bail pending his trial.
Prosecutors bolstered their claim that Nichols may flee if allowed to leave jail by submitting three letters he wrote to local authorities since 1992 in an effort to revoke his U.S. citizenship and become a “sovereign citizen.”
In response, Nichols’ attorney, Michael E. Tigar, filed court papers at the hearing in El Reno, Okla., alleging that prison authorities were harassing Nichols in an effort to provoke outbursts and incriminating statements from him. The lights in Nichols’ cell are left on all night, and prison guards make humiliating and intimidating statements to him, Tigar’s court papers said.
But U.S. District Court Judge David Russell said he found “clear and convincing evidence” that Nichols posed a flight risk. However, he ordered officials not to keep the cell lights on all night or subject Nichols to unwanted visits from a prison psychologist.
Tigar had complained about prison officials sending the psychologist to Nichols’ cell. U.S. Atty. Patrick Ryan said the intention was to calm Nichols down after a visit with his family, adding that there was no interrogation.
Nichols was silent during the two-hour detention hearing, which his mother and sister attended.
Nichols and Army buddy Timothy McVeigh are the only two charged in the April 19 bombing that killed 168 people and injured about 500 others.
While the two men are being held in solitary confinement at the Federal Correctional Institute in El Reno prosecutors continue to submit evidence to 23 grand jurors convened at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. The grand jury is expected to return indictments “sometime this summer,” a U.S. Justice Department official said Friday.
Prosecutors reportedly have enough evidence to charge another McVeigh Army buddy, Michael Fortier, with being a “second-tier” conspirator in the bombing, believing he took part in test explosions and may have had prior knowledge of the plot. Fortier reportedly told authorities that he and McVeigh traveled to Oklahoma City to inspect the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building before the bombing.
An official confirmed Friday that authorities have rejected a plea bargain offered by Fortier’s attorneys, refusing to grant him immunity or a reduced sentence until he provides more details about the plot. Fortier of Oatman, Ariz., is not in custody and has not been charged with a crime.
McVeigh’s sister, Jennifer, was questioned extensively by authorities but is not considered a suspect, a federal official said Friday. She reportedly shares many of Timothy McVeigh’s anti-government sentiments, but authorities say she has been cooperative.
Steven Garrett Colbern, a chemist who knows McVeigh, was scheduled Friday to be moved to a Los Angeles federal prison. Colbern is charged with being a fugitive felon in possession of a firearm and also with resisting arrest when he was picked up for questioning by U.S. marshals in Arizona on May 12. Colbern’s attorney, John Hannah, has told reporters that he believes Colbern has no connection to the plot.
Officials said this week that John Doe No. 2, the dark-haired man seen with McVeigh when he rented a truck in Junction City, Kan., four days before the blast, may not have been actively involved in the plot.
Terry Nichols’ brother, James Nichols, charged first with being a material witness to the blast and then with unrelated explosives violations, was released after a federal judge ruled that no hard evidence tied him to the blast.
