Federal Grand Jury Issues New Indictment Against Militia

A federal grand jury has issued a new indictment against members of a militia group and others, alleging they plotted to assault or kill federal agents as part of a pipe bomb-making conspiracy.

The 14-count indictment handed up Wednesday replaces a six-count indictment issued in August against nine people.

It charges two more people, including Deborah Sue Reece Pitner, wife of Washington State Militia leader John Pitner, 45, of Deming.

Caitlin Hansen, 36, was charged as an accessory, accused of helping her husband, Richard Frank Burton Jr., 38, another defendant, destroy and conceal evidence. Burton likewise is accused of persuading Hansen to destroy and conceal evidence.

The indictment also alleges that John Pitner and Gary Marvin Kuehnoel, 48, of Bellingham, sold an Uzi machine gun on Dec. 17.

Deborah Pitner is accused of perjury through her testimony in an Aug. 28 federal hearing in Seattle about the alleged bomb-making.

The indictment further says that on Sept. 6, 1995, at a militia meeting at the Pitners’ home, members engaged in target practice using silhouettes of FBI and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents and the U.S. president.

Charged with conspiracy are John Pitner; Kuehnoel; Burton; Frederick Benjamin Fisher, 61, of Bellingham, the militia’s assistant director; Bellingham residents Marlin Lane Mack, 24, and Theodore R. Carter Jr., 38; and Seattle residents Tracy Lee Brown, 55, Judy Carol Kirk, 54, and her husband, John Lloyd Kirk, 56.

In addition, Mack, John Kirk and Burton are charged with making and possessing unregistered destructive devices; Judy Kirk is accused of possessing an unregistered destructive device; and Kuehnoel is charged with selling two machine guns and possessing another machine gun and unregistered firearms.