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03/10/93
McLennan joins talks with cult leader
By George Kuempel / The Dallas Morning News
WACO-McLennan County Sheriff Jack Harwell has joined federal negotiators in trying to persuade cult leader David Koresh to end his 10-day-old standoff with federal officers.
FBI Special Agent Bob Ricks said Tuesday that Sheriff Harwell was allowed to telephone Mr. Koresh on Monday after talks with federal negotiators stalled. Agent Ricks said Mr. Koresh has displayed split personalities in the telephone talks, from spewing profanities to portraying himself as a peacemaker.
"We had gone approximately three days with no positive conversation taking place, and we were looking for something that might get the conversations rolling back on a more positive note,' the agent said.
"The sheriff has had numerous contacts with David Koresh, and those contacts have generally been positive,' he said. "The sheriff is respected by Mr. Koresh, and it was our hope that by getting someone in there that he trusted, we could get the negotiations going back in a more positive vein.'
Agent Ricks did not say how long the telephone call lasted or release any details of the conversation. However, he said six gallons of milk were delivered to the compound as a result of the cult leader's talk with the sheriff.
In other developments Tuesday:
Custody hearings were held for the 21 children freed by Mr.
Koresh. A judge awarded temporary custody of 18 children to state Children's Protective Services and ordered three released to their father.
Two elderly members of the cult who had been jailed were released to the custody of a "trusted individual' in an undisclosed location, Agent Ricks said. He did not name that person.
Margaret Lawson, 75, and Catherine Mattson, 77, left the cult's compound last week and initially were charged with murder, but the charges later were dismissed. Both women had remained in jail until Tuesday as material witnesses to the raid.
Gary Coker of Waco, Mrs. Mattson's lawyer, said the two women were released after they agreed not to speak with anyone but their attorneys. Mr. Coker said Mr. Koresh's mother contacted him Tuesday and asked him to consider representing her son.
Mr. Coker said he also has contacted Kirk Lyons, a North Carolina lawyer formerly of Houston who has been associated with cases involving white supremacist groups, such as the Aryan Nations.
A federal magistrate postponed a detention hearing for Delroy
Nash, a cult member captured after a shootout with federal agents Feb. 28. Mr. Nash remained jailed without bail.
In Washington, Stephen Higgins, director of the federal Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said on the NBC-TV Today show that federal agents are prepared to wait out Mr. Koresh.
"We're prepared to stay there for a long time. Indefinitely,' he said.
In LaVerne, Calif., federal investigators searched a home owned by one current member of the cult and occupied by two former followers of Mr. Koresh.
ATF agents were looking for documents, business records and other information, said John D'Angelo, an ATF spokesman in Los Angeles.
"We're going to be taking a fair amount of materials,' Agent D'Angelo said. He said that the sealed warrant did not seek any weapons.
In the first visible sign of life at the Branch Davidian compound for several days, a white banner appeared at an upper-story window.
Radio station KGBS (1190 AM) in Dallas said the banner appeared moments after radio show host Ron Engelman suggested that a white flag be displayed if Mr. Koresh wanted the station's legal and medical help.
Later Tuesday afternoon, another banner was hung from a window. It bore the words: "God help us. We want the press.'
Throughout the day, armored vehicles cruised the perimeter of the Mount Carmel compound. One, and sometimes two vehicles, would approach the compound, then quickly race away. Federal authorities would not explain the maneuvers.
At the daily news briefing in Waco, Agent Ricks said Sheriff Harwell had been brought into the negotiations because he has gotten to know Mr. Koresh well during his 20 years as the county's chief law enforcement officer.
According to some news accounts, it took just a telephone call from the sheriff to get Mr. Koresh to turn himself in after a 1987 shootout with a rival cult leader.
Agent Ricks said the sheriff may be called on again to help with the negotiations, depending on the circumstances.
Sheriff Harwell was at the besieged Mount Carmel compound Monday- as he has been every day since the Feb. 28 shootout that left four ATF agents dead-and was unavailable for comment, said Sheriff's Lt. Truman Simons.
Lt. Simons said Mr. Koresh and his followers might be "more amenable' to surrendering to someone they know and trust. "It would be a good outlet for them to save face,' he said.
Agent Ricks said Mr. Koresh indicated once again to negotiators Tuesday that he is prepared to surrender peacefully when he receives a message from God.
The day before, Agent Ricks had painted a darker side of Mr.
Koresh, saying he was spoiling for a fight and was even trying to provoke officers into a confrontation.
Those conflicting positions have surfaced throughout the negotiations, Agent Ricks said.
"We have a dual track going in our discussions with Mr. Koresh where we go from discussions of belligerency to one of he wants to be a peacemaker,' he said.
He also said that those inside the compound tend to lead a Spartan life and that Mr. Koresh keeps late hours. "Generally, he's the last one to get up,' Agent Ricks said.
Agent Ricks said he has sufficient personnel and equipment to handle the situation and has no plans to call on the military for help.
"We have sufficient firepower if we chose to completely neutralize the situation at any moment,' he said.
At least four unarmed Abrams tanks were dispatched to the area Monday after Mr. Koresh boasted that he had weapons capable of destroying the smaller Bradley armored personnel carriers at the site.
Federal authorities conceded Tuesday that they may be overestimating the amount of firepower at Mr. Koresh's command. "If we make a mistake, we have to overestimate their capabilities,' Agent Ricks said.
Mr. Koresh "has not specifically described the weaponry he possesses,' Agent Ricks said.
ATF spokesman Dan Conroy warned reporters to exercise caution in dealing with members of the cult or their relatives. He said shots had been fired at reporters in Palestine, Texas.
Spokesmen for the Palestine Herald-Press and the San Antonio Express-News confirmed that reporters had heard what sounded like small-caliber arms fire as they departed after an unsuccessful attempt to interview residents of a parcel of land Mr. Koresh owns near Palestine.
In Austin, Gov. Ann Richards said Tuesday she is "worried to death' about the standoff and particularly about the fate of the children still inside the compound.
She said that if she could talk to Mr. Koresh, she would appeal to him to "remember the children, and remember their lives and remember their future. . . . I hope very much that he will keep them constantly in mind and that he will release them.'
Staff writers Victoria Loe and Lee Hancock in Dallas, David McLemore in Waco and Christy Hoppe in Austin contributed to this report.
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