Dispute Over WACO Evidence Reported

Friday, September 10, 1999; 7:38 a.m. EDT

DALLAS (AP) -- U.S. marshals delayed carrying out a
judge's sealed order to seize more evidence from the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms stemming from
the Branch Davidian standoff, The Dallas Morning News
reported today.

The marshals carried out the order after U.S. District Judge
Walter Smith issued a second edict Thursday that they
comply with his initial order immediately, the newspaper
said, citing unidentified sources.

An ATF spokesman in Washington confirmed that Smith
issued the order after hearing that the agency was
considering closing their Waco office. He said the judge
wanted the office's contents to be preserved.

``There was, I guess on his part, some concern that the
office might be closing,'' said Jeff Roehm, public affairs
chief at the agency's headquarters. ``It was pretty much
expected.''

According to the News, the chief U.S. marshal for the
district spent hours debating whether to execute the order,
first consulting with his agency's headquarters in
Washington and the U.S. attorney's office in San Antonio.

Eventually, the marshals seized files and took custody of
keys to storage facilities, the News said.

Smith next month is scheduled to begin hearing a wrongful
death lawsuit filed against the government by Branch
Davidians who survived the 1993 federal raid and
subsequent fire at their compound.

Last week, Smith rejected a plea by the Justice Department,
parent agency of the U.S. Marshals Service, not to take
control of the evidence.

A Justice Department spokesman in Washington declined
comment on Thursday's seizure, the newspaper said.

The Waco ATF office was set up to help coordinate the
federal prosecutions and contained case files and
documents related to the 51-day standoff at the Branch
Davidian compound.

Roehm said the agency had decided to keep the office open
until the end of the wrongful-death lawsuit.

David Koresh and about 80 of his followers died in the
April 19, 1993, fire at their Mount Carmel compound.

Attorney General Janet Reno this week appointed an
independent inquiry to investigate the FBI's actions at the
end of the standoff after the agency revealed, after years of
denials, that it fired potentially flammable tear-gas canisters
at the compound on the day of the fire.

The government still maintains that the Davidians set the
blaze.

Last Friday, Smith had to intervene before the ATF allowed
the Texas Rangers access to the Waco storage facility
containing the massive collection of evidence.

The Rangers had asked to enter the facility to search for
items relating to pyrotechnic tear-gas devices fired by the
FBI. Rangers instead discovered the spent remains of a star
parachute flare.

© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press