Ratigan Confessed To Bombing, Jury Told Defendant Said He Put Device Outside Clinic, Friend Testifies

Brian Ratigan confessed to being the masked terrorist who nervously placed a bomb outside a Spokane Valley family planning clinic last year, his friend told a jury Wednesday.

Ratigan acted on his religious beliefs that abortion is a sin when he lighted the pipe bomb outside a Planned Parenthood clinic on July 12, 1996, Warren Day testified.

“He told me he was the one who carried the bomb,” Day said.

A U.S. District Court jury will decide if Ratigan, 38, of Sandpoint is the fourth terrorist involved in the Valley bombings and bank robberies.

Ratigan was nervous and stumbled after spotting people in the area, Day testified.

No one was injured in the bombing.

Ratigan also admitted being the left-handed robber caught by surveillance cameras inside a U.S. Bank branch, minutes after the Planned Parenthood bombing, according to Day.

The defendant believed banks are guilty of usury because they charge interest and that violates Yahweh’s (God’s) laws, Day said.

“He told me he had participated in the (bank) robbery in Spokane and he told me he had participated in the bombing,” Day told the jury.

Day, who lives near Clark Fork, Idaho, said he shares many of Ratigan’s white-separatist, antigovernment views. Day said he moved to North Idaho from Everett, Wash., in 1993 so he could live apart from the rest of the world.

“It’s a difficult thing to testify against someone who’s a friend,” he said at the outset of hour-long questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Harrington.

“We have a lot of beliefs in common that may not be acceptable by the mainstream,” Day said.

The witness said he isn’t willing to commit crimes to back up his religious beliefs, but Ratigan crossed that line.

“I, in no way, ever agreed with violent actions and stated that,” he said.

Questioned by defense attorney Terry Ryan, Day admitted obstructing justice when he cut up Ratigan’s rifle initially lied to FBI agents.

Day was subpoenaed before a grand jury in Spokane in January, but didn’t tell federal investigators about cutting up Ratigan’s assault rifle until June.

The 45-year-old self-employed portable sawmill operator got immunity from prosecution, then told FBI agents how he cut up and disposed of the AK-47 assault rifle Ratigan allegedly used in the bank robbery.

“I knew it was used in a serious crime and I didn’t want anybody to find it at my house,” Day explained when asked why he destroyed evidence.

“My judgment between right and wrong was clouded by my friendship with Brian,” he said.

Ratigan left the firearm at Day’s house last October. Day said he hid the gun and its ammunition clips in a wood pile, then cut it up and scattered the pieces over a snowy embankment.

Ratigan and his wife, Tina, and their two sons stayed with Day for four days after fleeing their home immediately after three of their friends were arrested Oct. 8 near Yakima.

It was during that stay and a prayer meeting held at the Rapid Lightning Creek home of Sharon Cohen that Ratigan implicated himself in the Valley crimes, Day said.

Ratigan is only charged with the July 12 bombing and robbery.

Three other Sandpoint men - Verne Jay Merrell, Robert Berry and Charles Barbee - were convicted earlier this year of more than a dozen felonies stemming from the pipe bombings and robberies in April and July 1996.

, DataTimes