LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/wires/20010629/tCB00V0990.html
Friday, June 29, 2001
Charge Against FBI Agent Dismissed
Associated Press Writer
BOISE, Idaho--A U.S. District judge has dismissed charges against an
FBI sharpshooter in the 1992 Ruby Ridge shooting of the wife of white
separatist Randy Weaver.
Judge Edward Lodge, in an order dated Tuesday, dismissed the state
manslaughter indictment of Lon Horiuchi at the request of Boundary County
Prosecutor Brett Benson who said it was unlikely the country could prove
the charge given the amount of time that has passed since the shooting.
Benson announced he would drop the case on June 14, a move criticized
by his predecessor, Denise Woodbury, who brought the charge against
Horiuchi.
A sharply divided 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had earlier
rejected federal claims that Horiuchi was automatically immune from
prosecution because he was acting in his official capacity when he killed
Vicki Weaver.
The majority said Horiuchi could be tried if he was found to have
acted illegally in his official capacity.
Mrs. Weaver died on the second day of the 11 -day siege that began in
a shootout that left the Weavers' teen-age son and a deputy U.S. marshal
dead.
The siege ended without further bloodshed. Weaver and family friend,
Kevin Harris, were both acquitted the next year of murder and all other
charges filed against them in connection with the confrontation.
The Justice Department last summer settled the last civil suit
stemming from the standoff. The government admitted no wrongdoing but paid
Harris $380,000 to drop his $10 million civil damage suit.
In 1995, the government paid Weaver and his three surviving children
$3.1 million for the killings of his wife and son.
Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times