Pipe-Bomb Suspect Pleads Innocent Ninth Suspect In Conspiracy Case Accepts Government Offer Of Lawyer

A ninth defendant in a federal pipe-bomb conspiracy case, named in an indictment handed down this week, pleaded innocent Thursday at his federal court arraignment.

Theodore R. Carter Jr., 38, of Bellingham, arrested Wednesday at his home, accepted a government offer of a lawyer at the hearing before U.S. Magistrate Philip Sweigert. A hearing on the government’s bid to hold him without bail is scheduled for Monday.

Bail was denied previously for the eight other defendants, arrested in Bellingham, Seattle and Tukwila in a late-July sweep. They are scheduled for arraignment Thursday.

A tentative trial date of Oct. 15 has been set, but likely will be postponed. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour will preside.

The six-count indictment details allegations in what the government says was a conspiracy by anti-government activists “to make and possess destructive devices to be used as weapons, including but not limited to pipe bombs.”

The charges stem from an investigation in which an undercover FBI agent participated in meetings with the defendants.

All nine are charged with conspiracy. Four are charged with making and possessing pipe bombs, and one with possession and transfer of machine guns.

Carter faces only the conspiracy charge.

The indictment does not make reference to the defendants’ belief - alleged in the original government complaint - that they were arming for an eventual confrontation with the federal government or the United Nations.

That conviction, a common theme among the latest wave of anti-government groups, was not an essential part of the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney William H. Redkey Jr. said.

The indictment does say the defendants’ membership in anti-government groups was “part of the conspiracy.”

Carter is the fifth member of the loosely knit Washington State Militia to be charged in the case. The others are John Irvin Pitner of Deming, founder of the organization, and Marlin Lane Mack, Gary Marvin Kuehnoel and Frederick Benjamin Fisher, all of the Bellingham area.

The others named in the indictment - John Lloyd Kirk and his wife Judith Carol Kirk of Tukwila, and Richard Frank Burton Jr. and Tracy Lee Brown, both of Seattle - were members of a Seattle-area group referred to by Pitner as “Freemen,” the government says.

The indictment alleges that Carter taught Pitner, Mack, Kuehnoel, Fisher and unidentified others how to build destructive devices on Feb. 27. Pitner is accused of teaching Fisher and Mack how to make a bomb using a propane cylinder filled with gunpowder on Aug. 23, 1995.

In addition to conspiracy, John Kirk and Mack are charged with two counts each of making and possession of “unregistered destructive devices” - pipe bombs. Judith Kirk and Burton face one count each.

Kuehnoel is charged with one count of possessing two rifles that had been converted into automatic weapons.

Brown had been previously identified by the government as William Smith and William Stanton. Prosecutors say the bearded, white-haired defendant has had identification under several names in recent years.