Videos Show Freemen In Action They Apparently Did Not Point Weapons At News Crew Members
Videotapes of Montana freemen seizing equipment from network television crews concluded the first week of trial for six members of the militant anti-government organization.
The freemen carried firearms, but apparently did not point them at any members of the news crews for ABC and NBC, crew members testified.
None of the six freemen in this first trial are directly linked to the confrontations at Justus Township, the freemen’s remote farm compound in eastern Montana. The armed men seen in the videotapes were not identified in court.
U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour instructed the jury that the videotapes are evidence only of the underlying offense alleged against the six, protecting known fugitives from arrest.
The videotapes and equipment were recovered when the last freemen surrendered to the FBI on June 13, 1996, ending an 81-day standoff around the compound.
Defense lawyers questioned the two witnesses, Hal Bowers of Albuquerque, N.M., and David Fox of Seattle, about trespass, invasion of privacy and ambush interviews, but the witnesses defended their actions.
Bowers was a free-lance sound technician with the ABC crew that wandered into Justus Township, on Oct. 1, 1995, six months before the standoff began.
“We were basically just fumbling around and trying to find the property,” Bowers said.
Bowers said the camera and related sound equipment taken from him, his ex-wife Amy Bowers and ABC producer Allison Seznon were valued at $60,000 to $65,000. Inspecting it on the witness stand, Bowers said it did not appear to have been harmed.
The ABC video, about 16 minutes in all, showed the crew driving to several places on Justus Township and trying to rouse anyone. A man with a “marshal’s badge” directed them to a house he called the Supreme Court.
When they arrived there, three men sped up in a pickup truck, immediately took their equipment and ordered them to leave. The video shows a fourth freemen filming the incident with a home video camera.
Fox, a free-lance photographer who does mostly documentary work, testified that his equipment had a replacement value of about $70,000.
The NBC video he took surreptitiously as freemen questioned the news crew lasted only about two minutes. He said a man with a rifle ordered them to leave the property, and they believed they were on a county road when they were confronted again by the same man and two others.
Coughenour recessed court for the weekend about 12:30 p.m. Friday.
U.S. Attorney Sherry Scheel Matteucci estimated the trial could go to the jury next Wednesday or Thursday, far earlier than anyone had predicted.
The six defendants are charged primarily as accessories by helping others in the remote farm stronghold to avoid arrest.
The defendants are Elwin Ward, 57, of Salt Lake City; Edwin Clark, 47, of Brusett, Mont.; Jon Barry Nelson, 42, of Marion, Kan.; and Steven C. Hance, 48, and sons James E. Hance, 25, and John R. Hance, 21, all of Charlotte, N.C.
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