Mohammed Fares, background left, Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad, center, and Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin arrive at the Federal Building for a court appearance Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2002, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo)
Posted on 02/14/2002 4:19:33 AM PST by GailA
Flaming death no accident, FBI says
Gasoline found on clothes of license examiner
By Bill Dries dries@gomemphis.com
The fiery death of a driver's license examiner at the center of a federal fraud investigation was not an accident, an FBI agent said here Wednesday in federal court.
Federal and state investigators found gasoline on the clothes Katherine Smith was wearing when she died Sunday in a car crash on a stretch of U.S. 72 in Fayette County, FBI agent J. Suzanne Nash told U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Daniel Breen.
Nash also testified that investigators found evidence of some kind of accelerant in the burned-out interior of Smith's car.
"Katherine Smith obviously lived two lives, maybe more. She may have had other things going on in her life that may have led to her death." - Karen Cicala
Her testimony came during a probable cause and bond hearing for three of Smith's five co-defendants in an alleged scheme to get Tennessee driver's licenses using false information for men with Middle Eastern ties who lived in New York City.
Breen found there was probable cause to charge Mohammed Fares, Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin and Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad. He also denied them bond.
Fares, Hammad and Abou-Shahin, wearing tan prison scrubs and blue windbreakers, listened to the proceedings through cell phones with an Arabic interpreter on the other end of the line in another city. The courtroom's sound system was piped through the phone line for the interpreter to hear.
After hearing the translation of Breen denying him bond, Fares, 19, set his cell phone on the table and put his head in his hands.
Smith and her co-defendants, including alleged ring leader Khaled Odtllah and Hammad's cousin, Sakhera Hammad, were charged Feb. 6 with conspiracy to fraud ulent ly obtain Tennessee driver's licenses.
While her five co-defendants have been imprisoned without bond since their Feb. 5 arrest, Smith was released on her own recognizance. She died one day before she was due to appear at a detention hearing before a federal magistrate judge.
"Was this death a result of an accident?" federal prosecutor Tim DiScenza asked Nash, who was the only witness to testify during Wednesday's two-hour hearing.
"No, it was not," Nash replied.
According to Nash, this is what FBI agents and Tennessee Highway Patrol investigators have concluded about the car crash:
Six unnamed witnesses - all related to each other - saw Smith's 1992 Acura Legend veer off U.S. 72 around 12:45 a.m. Sunday. They said the interior of the car was on fire as the car drove across a ditch and hit a utility pole.
The fire was arson, Nash said.
"Every single thing inside the car is burnt," she said before noting that the trunk and gas tank were untouched by a blaze so intense that Smith's arms and legs were "burned off."
There was only "slight damage" to the front end of the car from hitting the utility pole, she added.
Nash said gasoline was found on Smith's clothing. She said investigators are still waiting on test results of traces of an unknown accelerant found in the car. A dog trained to sniff out such chemicals detected the accelerant.
Smith died from "inhaling the actual flames," Nash testified.
"Her airway system is actually singed."
Attorneys for the three defendants were quick to point out that their clients were all in prison at the time of Smith's death.
"Katherine Smith obviously lived two lives, maybe more," said Karen Cicala, who represents Fares. "She may have had other things going on in her life that may have led to her death."
She also questioned whether Fares is being treated differently because of ties to the Middle-East.
Attorney Jake Erwin, representing Hammad, urged Breen to consider only the fraud conspiracy charge.
"You're not saying that Mr. Hammad had anything to do with Katherine Smith's death, are you?" Erwin asked Nash.
"No, not at this time," she replied.
"You're not saying he had anything to do with the World Trade Center attack, are you," he asked again.
"No, not at this time," she repeated.
DiScenza has said there are "connections" linking two of the accused to the World Trade Center in the days before it was destroyed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Those connections include a visitor's pass to the WTC dated Sept. 5 that belonged to Sakhera Hammad.
DiScenza focused on Smith's death as a factor that Breen should consider in denying bond.
"This court has to consider that Katherine Smith died under very suspicious circumstances, in a manner that was clearly not an accident," DiScenza told Breen. "Coincidence only goes so far."
- Bill Dries: 529-2643
All Arabs, or just because the price was right?
You know how anthropologists have determined that the tooth brush was invented in eastern Tennessee?
If it wasn't, it would be called a "teeth brush".
BA-DA-BING! Ouch! That was a good one :o)
I did for about a half year when I first got here myself, due largely to the fact that TN required a 6-month residency before they'd let me have a concealed handgun permit.
So I just kept on driving on my Indiana driver's license, even after it had expired, and used my Indiana carry license. But I wasn't about to go unarmed for half a year. That'd have been a great way to get killed.
-archy-/-
Why? They don't spill as much if they're standing straight up and down....
Bruddddabam, ting!
[Say goodnight, Gracie....]
Sorry, my guitar picker is out of town this week, working in Anniston, Alabama.
-archy-/-
Burned-out car paints broader picture
No pics, but the video link shows the burned out car from many angles. I'd say the car hit the pole at about 15 MPH. Here's the story:
" FBI agents say their investigation has moved beyond corruption at the DMV and into arson.
On Action News Five, we showed you pictures of the car found early Sunday morning. It's driver, Katherine Smith, had been burned to death inside. Witnesses reportedly say the car was on fire before it collided with a utility pole on Highway 72 in Fayette County.
FBI agents say it was no accident and their suspicions grow with new information.
"The entire inside of the vehicle was incinerated," says agent Phillip Thomas. "Yet the gas tank wasn't ruptured. So, that's unusual."
The primary reason for suspicion: Smith's scheduled appointment the next day in Federal Court on charges she conspired to sell false driver's licenses to five men with ties to the Middle East.
"They were going to use these licenses with fictitious names to get additional ID in other parts of the country," says Thomas." The one part of the country also connected to at least one of these men... New York City - and the World Trade Center.
Action News Five received a fax from a New York plumbing company, confirming that one of the men, Sakhera Hammad, had worked in the basement of the World Trade Center several times. He was laid off soon after September 11th.
To make matters more complicated - The FBI can't even confirm exactly who these men are, for sure, admitting that even these names we were given may be false.
"These people are illegal aliens and they can give us any names because they don't have documentation," says Thomas.
see also: Editorial: Alien driver's license law needs tightening
Mohammed Fares, background left, Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad, center, and Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin arrive at the Federal Building for a court appearance Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2002, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo)
Wrong, morons. It needs repealing, and all licenses that can be found that were issued under this legislation need to be revoked.
Notice the Comic Apple also tried to use this incident as a justification for higher taxes, in particular an income tax the idea of which seems to be worshipped by the entire state media corps.
Thanks for the news update and ping, Shermy.
Given this, it makes me wonder if this TN DL scandal doesn't go HIGHER than Smith.
That's AWFUL! I can only hope that the FBI actually does something instead of sticking their heads up their *sses.
The alphabet agencies are treasonous to our republic!
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