Gritz Says He Didn’t Commit Any Crime Bonds Lower But Right-Wing Leader And Son Remain In Jail

Right-wing survivalist James G. “Bo” Gritz, accused of attempted kidnapping in a couple’s custody battle over two children, denied Tuesday committing any crime but said he was interested in the kids’ safety.

Gritz, 57, and his son, James R. Gritz, 38, both of Nevada, had their bonds lowered to $50,000, from $1 million, during a hearing in Enfield Superior Court. But their attorney said they would not be able to post bond until today, forcing them to spend a second night in jail.

The Gritzes were arrested Monday after being spotted in the parking lot of McAlister Middle School in Suffield, just south of the Massachusetts state line. One of the two children involved in the custody fight is a student there.

The Gritzes were each charged with attempted kidnapping and loitering on school grounds. The younger Gritz also was charged with possession of a weapon and possession of burglary tools. Police said the weapon was a knife.

Neither of the Gritzes entered a plea Tuesday. But in a written statement, Gritz said: “I’m innocent. My word is my bond.” He said the real issue was not him but the safety of the two boys, ages 10 and 7. He said there had been some claims they had been harmed.

Hartford lawyer Jon L. Schoenhorn, who represented the two men, said the charges stemmed from a custody battle between his client, Linda M. Wiegand, and her ex-husband, Thomas Wilkinson.

She was arrested in July in Las Vegas where she fled with her two young sons in 1994 after losing a custody battle. The children were returned to Wilkinson, and she was freed on bail.

Gritz had taken an interest in Wiegand’s case, and decided to come to Connecticut to check it out, after she appeared recently on his radio talk show, “Freedom Calls,” Schoenhorn said.

When Gritz was arrested, he was driving a car with Nevada plates owned by a friend of Wiegand. The Gritzes said they were near the school because they were looking for a 1957 Chevrolet being offered for sale on the same street as the school, the attorney said.

Schoenhorn acknowledged there was enough evidence to charge the Gritzes but he said “no jury is going to convict them.”

Brought into Superior Court with his legs shackled, Gritz told Judge Wendy Susco that he had never seen the two children. The judge’s response: pictures of the kids were found in the elder Gritz’s pockets.

In agreeing to lower bond, Susco ordered the Gritzes to have no contact with the children.

Gritz, a former Green Beret colonel who ran for president in 1992, is a national leader of the so-called patriot movement, which rails against a U.N.-led “New World Order” and charges the government with corruption and violence.

He helped negotiate an end to the FBI siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and became a mediator in the freemen standoff in Montana on April 27. He gave up in frustration there after five days.

After the arraignment, Wiegand told The Associated Press she didn’t know why the Gritzes were at her son’s school.

“I can’t imagine he was doing anything illegal or immoral,” she said. “The issue should be the plight of my children.”

In an interview outside court, Wilkinson, her ex-husband, described her as “the type of woman who doesn’t stop until she gets what she wants.”

In seeking to have bond lowered, Gritz’s attorney presented the judge with 25 character references from around the country. He also told the judge about the many decorations Gritz had received in the Army.

“What we have here today is a dishonor to the uniform of the United States,” said the prosecutor, Assistant State’s Attorney John Malone.