U.S.

Waco Prosecutor Pleads Guilty

November 9, 2000 / 9:08 AM EST / CBS/AP

A former prosecutor pleaded guilty Tuesday to obstructing a federal investigation into the 1993 Branch Davidian siege near Waco.

Bill Johnston, accused of withholding several pages of pretrial notes related to the 1994 prosecution of several surviving Branch Davidians, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Charles A. Shaw. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed felony charges against Johnston and recommended up to three years of probation.

Johnston has admitted withholding one page of notes dealing with the FBI's use of pyrotechnic gas on April 19, 1993. That was the final day of a 51-day standoff that ended with the death of Davidian leader David Koresh and some 80 followers.

Before entering the plea, Johnston said he was improperly singled out for prosecution but couldn't afford to fight the charges.

"I am out of money, and I have to try to salvage some way to make a living because I am so far in debt from all of this," Johnston said.

Friends and supporters of Johnston raised about $40,000 for his legal defense and have asked President George W. Bush to pardon him.

Johnston said in a statement after the November indictment that he was being prosecuted because he was a "whistle-blower."

"My actions were foolish, regrettable and wrong, but they were not criminal," Johnston said then. "I can't confess to concealing the pyrotechnics when I was the government employee most responsible for disclosing them. And I can't take full blame when there is so much blame to be spread around."

Johnston, a former assistant U.S. attorney, in 1994 helped convict nine Davidians during their criminal trial.

In 1999, federal Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. ordered the government to give him all records and evidence connected with the standoff.

Johnston then complained publicly that the Justice Department was covering up evidence showing FBI agents had fired pyrotechnic tear gas at the compound.

Justice Department and FBI officials denied for years that the government had used anything capable of sparking fires when they employed tanks and tear gas to try to end the standoff.

The FBI's subsequent confirmation that some pyrotechnic tear gas was used prompted Attorney General Janet Reno to ask former Missouri Sen. John Danforth to investigate.

In July, 2000, Danforth in a preliminary report absolved the government of blame in the blaze. A week earlier, an advisory jury hearing a $675 million wrongful-death lawsuit brought by surviving cult members and the victims' families reached the same conclusion.

Johnston left the U.S. attorney's office in February and Danforth's investigators questioned him repeatedly. He admitted in July 2000 that he had withheld several pages of notes from 1993 dealing with the FBI's use of pyrotechnic gas.

A congressional report issued last year praised Johnston for helping reveal the use of pyrotechnics, but condemed his failure to surrender the notes, which indicated he was told in 1993 that FBI agents fired several incendiary military tear gas grenades.

Johnston said earlier that he withheld the notes out of fear that hostile colleagues might try to use what he had written to discredit him.