Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Weaver Back At Cabin For TV Re-Enactment Scene Of Deadly Siege Becomes Set For Abc’s ‘Primetime Live’

For the first time since a deadly shooting three years ago, Randy Weaver was back at his legendary mountain cabin Monday and he had unusual house guests.

ABC-News anchorman Sam Donaldson and a crew from “PrimeTime Live” were there, taping reenactments of the 11-day siege of August 1992.

The show is set for broadcast Sept. 6.

That’s the same day a Senate subcommittee in Washington, D.C., is to launch its investigation of events surrounding the deaths of Weaver’s wife and son and a federal marshal.

The scene at Weaver’s cabin Monday was a sharp, almost eerie contrast to the events played out there three summers ago.

This summer, there even was laughter.

Instead of military personnel carriers, there were brand-new Ford Explorers used to haul the network crews up to the cabin.

The 62-year-old Donaldson, recovering from lymph node surgery four weeks ago, sat in an overstuffed chair in Weaver’s living room, sipping bottled water.

The cabin, with only plywood siding, was clean, almost cheery inside.

Wearing a leather jacket, plaid shirt and khaki pants, Donaldson said he’s wanted to work on the story for months, but didn’t get Weaver’s agreement until a month ago.

“The last hurdle was for Randy to make up his mind, to trust us to do the story,” Donaldson said.

Weaver’s friend, Kevin Harris, and two camera crews ate catered lunches on paper plates under the late August sun.

Weaver, 47, smoked a cigarette, and modestly seemed to enjoy all the attention. He shook a reporter’s hand in warm, friendly fashion, then was ready to get back to the taping.

His two daughters, Sara, 19, and Rachel, 14, looked on as the cabin where their mother was killed was turned into a set for the television show.

As Donaldson watched on Monday, Weaver showed how an FBI sniper’s bullet hit him in the arm and spun him around on the spot where an outbuilding once stood.

Everyone broke out laughing when a car alarm on one of the rental Ford Explorers started honking. It seemed to annoy the anxious producers, but didn’t cause a flinch in Donaldson’s famous eyebrows.

On the sidelines, Boise attorneys Chuck Peterson, David Nevin and Ellison Matthews hung out with their own cameras to catch scrapbook photos of their clients with the TV personality.

The attorneys joined Wyoming attorney Gerry Spence in successfully defending Weaver and Harris on charges of murdering a federal agent.

Harris has a $20 million claim pending with the federal government.

The Weavers were just awarded $3.1 million by the federal government. Other costs from the case are estimated at three or four times that much.

Harris and Weaver couldn’t be interviewed at the cabin under an agreement that allowed a Spokesman-Review reporter to watch a brief portion of the day’s videotaping. Donaldson agreed to a 20-minute interview after lunch.

“Our story looks at the use of force which was, at best, far disproportionate to any provocation,” Donaldson said.

“At worst, (it) was simply a group of federal agents who had decided to take the law into their own hands,” Donaldson said.

The network hired a security guard to block the narrow, steep access road to the cabin.

Just beyond the guard, where travel on the rocky, dirt road gets tough, there is an old county road sign, taken from somewhere else. Tacked high in a tree, it says the speed limit is 45 mph.

About 100 feet from the cabin, where the rental cars parked, a “Yashua Yahweh” sign was tossed alongside a ditch. Christian Identity followers like Weaver use those Hebrew words to refer to Christ and God.

Co-producer Barri Chattman said Donaldson was barking orders about the Weaver story while he was recovering in his hospital bed earlier this month.

Looking fit Monday, Donaldson said the “PrimeTime” investigation suggests the events at Ruby Ridge “make a mockery” of justice, due process and human life.

The network show will re-enact events, in time-clock fashion, beginning Aug. 21, 1992, with the deaths of deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan and Weaver’s 14-year-old son, Sam.

The following day, an FBI sniper shot and wounded Weaver and Harris, and fatally shot Vicki Weaver.

“I believe we’re going to have the most comprehensive, lengthy and, I believe, most dramatic telling” of the Weaver case, Donaldson said.

A criminal investigation ordered by FBI Director Louis Freeh is attempting to determine who changed the agency’s long-standing self-defense shooting rules to shoot-to-kill orders.

Donaldson said the network hasn’t secured an interview with FBI supervisor Eugene Glenn, “who refused to take the fall” for changing the shooting orders.

Evidence now suggests Glenn’s supervisors in Washington, D.C., were responsible and later destroyed documents in a cover-up. Five FBI officials, including former deputy director Larry Potts, are suspended.

ABC crews over the weekend tracked down FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi on a sidewalk in a Washington suburb, and got his views. The network will disguise his face, but use his comments, Donaldson said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo