No Bail For Bomb Defendants -- Undercover Agent Key To Government's Case Against Eight

A neighbor was willing to put up her house for one of the defendants. Family members rallied around loved ones. Friends stood up, ready to speak about character. But it was to no avail.

In an emotionally charged detention hearing in Seattle, U.S. Magistrate Philip Sweigert denied bail yesterday to five of the eight people accused of conspiring to make pipe bombs. Three others had been ordered to be held in custody last Thursday.

"There is no legitimate use for pipe bombs in the community," Sweigert said.

The eight were arrested July 27 after allegedly conspiring to make and possess pipe bombs to "arm themselves for what they believed would be an eventual confrontation" with the U.S. government or United Nations.

In court were Judy C. Kirk, 54, her husband John Kirk, 55, both of Tukwila; Gary Marvin Kuehnoel, 47, of Bellingham; Marlin L. Mack, 23, of Bellingham; and William R. Smith of Seattle. Smith, whose age was unavailable, also was identified as Tracy Brown of Seattle.

Kuehnoel and the Kirks also are accused of making and possessing explosive devices. Kuehnoel also is charged with the transfer and possession of a machine gun.

Dressed in prison garb, most of the defendants were stone-faced during the proceedings except for Judy Kirk and Smith. She was teary-eyed, while Smith smiled widely.

The government's case is largely built on the work of an undercover agent who infiltrated the group's meetings, and that was

what attorneys for the defendants focused on in the hearing. They tried to convince the judge that their clients were merely gun buffs, survivalists or people caught in the wrong circumstances. They argued that their clients would have avoided legal trouble if not for the undercover agent.

"He kept the enthusiasm going for this waning group," said defense attorney James Roe, who characterized Mack as a military buff who liked survivalist items like "meals that last up to 100 years." According to the federal complaint, Mack dropped off four pipe bombs to an undercover federal agent after lugging them around in a backpack while he was riding a bicycle.

Mack is the youngest of the defendants. Roe said Mack's father, who was in Bosnia-Herzegovina delivering medical supplies, would be willing to keep an eye on his son when he returned.

"We don't have a murder here," Roe said. "We have people who talk a lot and who are interested in survivalism."

The government presented a different portrait. Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Dohrmann outlined a list of items seized by federal agents at some of the defendants' homes. They included chemicals used in bomb-making, an assortment of legal and illegal weapons and numerous manuals on how to make explosive devices. Also confiscated were books on how to change identifications.

Judy Kirk's attorney, Howard Ratner, told the court she was not aware her husband kept chemicals in their Tukwila home.

"Her grandchildren play at her home," Ratner said. "She would never have her grandkids at home if she thought they would be in danger."

Kirk is a data technician for The Boeing Co., and her husband is an unemployed TV repairman. Last year the couple filed for bankruptcy.

Wilma Patapoff, 73, a neighbor of Judy Kirk and a former Seattle city employee, told the court she was willing to put up her home as security for a $50,000 release bond for Judy Kirk. She testified she had never seen explosives or chemicals in the Kirk house.

Dohrmann, however, detailed what agents found in the Kirks' home, which included books on how to make explosive devices and two 50-pound bags of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer sometimes used in the making of bombs. She said that federal agents became ill at the Kirks' home and that their search was halted when they were overcome by fumes coming from a canister.

"It's incredible to live in a house for 23 years and not have an awareness of the chemicals and literature," Dohrmann said.

After the hearing, Ratner said his client normally would have been released without bail.

"I think everyone is scared now with what's been happening around us. They're scared by the Olympic bomb, the airplane going down," Ratner said.

The defendants are scheduled for a preliminary hearing Thursday to determine whether there is enough evidence to hold them for trial.