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04/20/93
Evidence for many cases burned with compound, lawyer says
By Todd J. Gillman / The Dallas Morning News
WACO-With the incineration of the Branch Davidian compound Monday, invaluable evidence in numerous criminal cases went up in smoke, said a lawyer who had played a prominent role in talks aimed at ending the siege peacefully.
"I can't think of any worse result than this, can you?' said Jack Zimmermann of Houston.
"Even for the people that survived. All the physical evidence that could help in their defense, all the witnesses, are gone.'
The FBI declined to comment on the effect of the fire on the federal investigation of the Branch Davidians but has said that other evidence preserved earlier will aid in the prosecutions.
Mr. Zimmermann had been representing Steve Schneider, the chief lieutenant to cult leader David Koresh. Mr. Schneider, and the man he regarded as his messiah, were among those unaccounted for and presumed dead after the midday conflagration that reduced the compound to smoking ash.
The case against them may now be moot.
But more than a dozen adults were released from the cult compound
in the weeks since Feb. 28, when four agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were killed in a shootout with cult members.
Most of those adults face federal criminal charges, ranging from attempted murder and conspiracy to murder a federal agent to possession of a firearm and obstructing the duties of a police officer.
Despite the destruction of the wood-frame compound, authorities said, they already have secured valuable evidence from the scene. And, they added, they'll glean more in coming days.
On Sunday, for example, cars parked in front of the compound's main doors were carefully towed away by tanks to preserve whatever evidence they may hold, FBI Agent Bob Ricks said. The cars were parked in the area where most of the shooting occurred on Feb. 28.
The FBI earlier photographed the compound before moving some of the cars, especially in areas where the initial gunbattle occurred.
Authorities are to begin combing methodically through the remains of the compound Tuesday.
"It is still a crime scene, and certain things will have to be preserved,' Agent Ricks said Monday.
The ATF has previously said that agents videotaped the Feb. 28 raid and shootout. That tape has not been released, but a Waco television station also recorded and broadcast part of the shooting.
The FBI, moreover, is believed to have tape-recorded scores of hours of telephone negotiations with Mr. Koresh, Mr. Schneider and other members of the cult, and whatever admissions those tapes include have been preserved.
Still, a legal expert said authorities may never be able to answer definitively the question that brought them down a dusty road outside Waco in the first place: Were Mr. Koresh and his adherents were stockpiling illegal weaponry?
"On the possession of illegal weapons violations, it (the destruction of the compound) is going to be harmful unless they get some oral testimony and statements' from survivors, said Baylor University law professor Brian Serr.
Allegations that the cult had collected illegal weapons was one of the reasons for the February raid.
Dick DeGuerin, who had been hired to represent Mr. Koresh, said:
"It's going to be a difficult case for both sides.'
Staff writers Lee Hancock and Bruce Tomaso and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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