Jury Chosen For Ratigan Trial

Fri., Sept. 19, 1997

Compiled From Wire Services

A jury was selected Thursday in the trial of a fourth man arrested in a series of Spokane Valley bombings and bank robberies.

Brian E. Ratigan is accused of joining three anti-government militia members in a crime spree driven by ideological aversions to banking and abortion. Those men were convicted in July and are scheduled to be sentenced in October.

Ratigan, 38, of Sandpoint is being tried in U.S. District Court on charges of conspiracy, destruction of a building, armed bank robbery and use of a firearm in a crime of violence. If convicted of the bombing and bank robbery charges, he faces life imprisonment.

The charges stem from the July 12, 1996, bombing of a Planned Parenthood office and robbery of a nearby U.S. Bank in the suburban Spokane Valley.

A panel of 16 jurors, including four alternates, was chosen for the trial, expected to last two to three weeks. Opening statements were set for today.

The three men already convicted in the case - Verne Jay Merrell, Charles Barbee and Robert Berry - are listed as possible witnesses for Ratigan. , DataTimes

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