Plea Agreement in Davidian Case

Plea Agreement in Davidian Case

NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2001

WACO, Texas (UPI) – A former federal prosecutor said he would plead guilty Tuesday to a federal charge that he withheld information from superiors in the investigation of the 1993 Branch Davidian standoff near Waco.

Bill Johnston said he agreed to a plea agreement that called for him to plead guilty to misprision of a felony, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported Tuesday. Misprision of a felony means the accused knew of a felony committed by another and failed to report it.

"I think it is significant that they are agreeing to dismiss the entire indictment against me, and I am agreeing that I should have informed them that I didn't turn over my notes, which I have already publicly stated," he told the Tribune-Herald.

The office of Special Counsel John Danforth in St. Louis was expected to recommend a probated sentence in exchange for Johnston's guilty plea, he said.

Johnston was indicted last November on two counts of obstructing Danforth's investigation and on three counts of lying to investigators and the grand jury.

Johnston, a former U.S. attorney in Waco who helped prosecute 11 Branch Davidians, was the only person indicted in Danforth's review of the government's role in the standoff. U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno named Danforth to conduct the probe, which lasted 14 months.

Johnston said he accepted the deal partly because he was running out of money fighting the federal charges. He also said a conviction on just one count of the indictment would have forced the Texas State Bar to look at possible suspension or disbarment.

Misprision of a felony carries a prison term of up to three years.

In the past, Johnston has said he withheld his handwritten notes about discussion of pyrotechnic tear-gas canisters before the Branch Davidian criminal trial in 1994. He also said he "temporarily misled" the grand jury about his knowledge of the canisters and whether he turned over his notes and other materials related to the case.

Johnston had been ordered by U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith in Waco and a congressional subpoena to turn over all his materials in the case. Johnston said he withheld the notes from his superiors in the Justice Department because he didn't trust them. He had accused them of misleading Reno about the use of the tear gas.

Among other findings, Danforth determined that pyrotechnic tear-gas canisters were used at the end of the standoff but did not start the fire in which more than 80 Branch Davidians died. Reno authorized the probe after reports surfaced that the tear-gas grenades were used.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Waco