Bombing Suspect Says The Fbi Lacks Evidence Breaking Precedent, Barbee Says He’ll Testify At His Retrial, Which Is Scheduled For June 23
Accused terrorist Charles Barbee says the FBI “has no concrete evidence” linking him and other North Idaho men to bombings and bank robberies in the Spokane Valley.
That’s why a federal jury failed to convict him of those crimes and a mistrial was declared last month, Barbee said in an interview with Spokane public radio station KPBX.
Barbee said he likely will testify in his second trial, now set for June 23, but thinks the trial itself violates his constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy.
Prosecutors who refiled charges are “just usurping power by force of arms again,” Barbee said.
“You know, they’ve got an army full of thugs out there with alphabet names - FBI or BATF, or whatever you call them and they impose their will on their people - myself, you, everybody - through force of arms,” he said.
Barbee described his first trial as one-sided. “It’s not a trial; it was a tribunal.”
“They didn’t have any concrete evidence that any of us were involved in these crimes,” he said, referring to lack of fingerprints or DNA evidence. “What they got are inferences of guilt.”
Lack of preparation time before the first trial made it tough to build his legal defense, he said.
“If anybody was at a disadvantage, it was the defense attorneys who were being handed information on witnesses literally just as they went on the stand,” he said.
Barbee, 45, has turned down other interview requests, but agreed to meet with KPBX reporter Patrick Heald, who had to submit written questions in advance.
KPBX released copies of the taped interview on Thursday after the station aired a 21-minute segment on its “Inland Journal” news report.
Barbee’s court-appointed defense attorney, Roger Peven, was present during the interview.
It was conducted Wednesday in the Spokane County Jail, where Barbee, Robert Berry, 43, and Verne Jay Merrell, 51, all of Sandpoint, have been held without bond since their arrests Oct. 8.
Federal authorities alleged the trio and a fourth defendant, Brian Ratigan, 38, also of Sandpoint, were part of an anti-government cell of self-described “Phineas Priests.” They are accused of three bombings and two bank robberies in what authorities describe as domestic terrorism.
Barbee wouldn’t answer when asked by KPBX why he, Berry and Merrell went to Portland, where they were spotted outside another bank shortly before their arrests.
“Well, I guess, my attorney is shaking his head, and I’m not supposed to answer that,” Barbee said.
He said he wasn’t surprised, but thankful, that the U.S. District Court jury couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict. It split 11-to-1, favoring conviction.
“The reason they didn’t convict us is because there’s no hard evidence we done (sic) these things because we didn’t do them,” Barbee said. “What they’ve got is innuendos.”
Barbee held a Bible during the KPBX interview and said he reads it regularly in jail.
“It’s obvious our religious views were on trial,” Barbee told KPBX. “As to how much impact it had with the jury, I don’t know, that’d be speculation.”
He said one of the government’s key witnesses, Robert Berry’s brother, Loren Berry, was coerced into testifying for the prosecution.
“One of the statements that he made is that he’d talk to them (the FBI) if they left his girlfriend alone,” Barbee said of Loren Berry.
“He was threatened, probably, with charges of some sort and he testified to what they told him to keep himself out of what he thinks would be jail.”
Barbee said spending the past seven months in jail has been tough. “It’s difficult to have a family and maintain your family ties in times like this.”
Barbee said he spends a lot of time thinking about the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.
“I worry about my family.”
, DataTimes