Posted on 09/23/2003 1:34:17 PM PDT by OutSpot
SOUR LAKE, Texas - A former federal prosecutor who successfully defended the government in a lawsuit filed by surviving members of the Waco cult was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
A police officer found the body of former U.S. Attorney J. Michael Bradford on Tuesday after checking on an abandoned car in the woods near Sour Lake, about 20 miles from Beaumont. The body and a shotgun were about 75 feet away. The wound was apparently self-inflicted, Sheriff Ed Cain said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
HOWEVER, the arkancides all die.
Therefore, Bradford had info against the Arkansas mafia.
I think I would kill myself.
No, its true. He shot himself three times in the back of his head.
Reuters, Sept 14, 1999
By David Lawsky
WASHINGTON, Sept 14, 1999 (Reuters) - A lawyer who told Attorney General Janet Reno that information may have been withheld from her about the deadly 1993 Waco siege has been pulled off the case, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston and his boss, U.S. Attorney Bill Blagg, were both removed under orders from Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder in Washington.
The Justice Department transferred the case to J. Michael Bradford, the U.S. Attorney in Beaumont, Texas, who said his goal will be to "foster public confidence."
Bradford's office will defend the government next month, when a suit brought by survivors and families of those who died in a fire at the Branch Davidian compound on April 19, 1993, goes to trial. The compound burst into flames, killing David Koresh and 80 of his followers, after government tanks moved in to break down its walls.
Johnston raised questions late last month about whether Reno was getting the full story from her department about the assault.
"Facts may have been kept from you -- and quite possibly are being kept from you even now," Johnston wrote Reno.
Johnston told the attorney general that evidence the FBI used pyrotechnic CS tear gas grenades a few hours before the fire began may have been kept under wraps by "individuals or components within the Department of Justice."
After six years of denials, the FBI admitted last month agents fired the potentially incendiary military tear gas rounds at the roof of a concrete bunker near the compound. But it said there was no evidence the rounds helped start the fire.
The Waco standoff began on Feb. 28, 1993, when federal agents trying to search the compound and arrest Koresh on weapons charges engaged in a shootout with sect members. Four federal agents were killed.
Time has done little to calm the anger and suspicion aroused by the case. The U.S. attorney who lost jurisdiction said as much in explaining why his authority was removed.
"Members of my office advised law enforcement agencies before and during the siege and handled the criminal trial in 1994," said Blagg, of Houston, in a statement. "Because of their roles in matters that may be under investigation, my office has been recused from all related matters to avoid any potential or appearance of a conflict of interest."
Bradford, who took over the case, said his first job would be to familiarize himself with the facts.
"Our main objective is to assist in providing truthful information in order to foster public confidence," he said in a statement.
Reno has appointed former Sen. John Danforth, a moderate Republican, to examine the government's handling of the case.
High Profile Cases Highlight Law Day Speaker's Career
by Kevin McHargue April 04, 2001
When the Justice Department asked U.S. Attorney J. Michael Bradford to defend the federal government in a $675 million wrongful death suit arising from the 1993 siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, he compared the experience to “jumping on a moving freight train.” As he looks back on his tenure as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, Bradford sees the Branch Davidian trial as a high point in his career, a case that not only yielded a favorable result for the government but gave Bradford a unique opportunity to “help restore people’s confidence in their government.” Join the Dallas Bar Association and Bradford, the keynote speaker, as we celebrate Law Day April 27 at the Adolphus Hotel. (See Cut-It-Out, Page 18).
Bradford became involved in the Branch Davidian case at a critical juncture in the fall of 1999. Congress had launched an investigation of the events in Waco, and the public was increasingly skeptical about how the operation had been handled. The civil suit originally fell within the jurisdiction of Bill Blagg, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, but Blagg decided to recuse himself after learning that some of his own prosecutors would have to testify as fact witnesses in the case. As lead attorney, Bradford acknowledged that the outcome of the Waco siege was “one of the most terrible and horrible events in our history” but maintained that the blame should be placed squarely on Branch Davidian leader David Koresh.
The five-member jury and U.S. District Judge Walter Smith agreed. After the jury issued an advisory verdict in favor of the government, Judge Smith concluded that “the entire tragedy at Mount Carmel can be laid at the feet” of Koresh.
Bradford recognizes that “there will always be a certain percentage” of the public that will continue to fault the government for the Waco tragedy but feels that “the issue has been settled for the majority of people.” “When you get the truth out, it restores people’s faith that the system works,” Bradford said.
Maintaining public confidence has been a dominant theme in Bradford’s work as U.S. Attorney, providing a “common denominator” in all of the cases that he has undertaken. The brutal murder of African-American James Byrd Jr. in Jasper was another high-profile case in which Bradford saw the need to reaffirm the public’s faith in the legal system.
“The whole world was watching that case, and I am proud of how we handled it,” Bradford said. “That crime was intended to threaten and intimidate an entire community, and it was vitally important to send the message that we would not tolerate that conduct.”
Bradford provided attorneys and investigators to support the Jasper County District Attorney’s successful prosecution of James Byrd’s killers. In recognition of their work in the Jasper case, which is seen as a model of cooperation between state and federal prosecutors, Bradford and other members of his team received the Attorney General’s Award, the highest honor that the Department of Justice can bestow. (snip)
For the Jasper case, or for his 'handling' of Waco?
What did he know, and when did he know it...
WOW!...sounds like it, the little Rock Mafia protection racket has been extended to Gen. W. "Confusion" Clark...a sure sign he's a Clintons minion...ahhh, lapdog.
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