Defense Questions Motives of Bombing Trial Witness

By RICHARD A. SERRANO

May 1, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

DENVER — One day she was the government’s star witness, escorted to the stand to help prosecutors convict and put to death those responsible for the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.

The next day she was a drug user, a careless mother, a gun runner, an anti-government militant and a rifle-toting desert woman not above perjuring herself to stay out of prison.

Wednesday it was the defense’s turn to question Lori Fortier.

Stephen Jones, the attorney for defendant Timothy J. McVeigh, repeatedly challenged Fortier’s credibility and her motives for turning against her one-time friend and--if she is to be believed--for allowing 168 people, including 19 children, to die when she knew all along that the bomb was coming.

He told her: “All you had to do to prevent the deaths of these 168 people was to pick up the phone, and you didn’t do that.”

And in an impromptu press conference in front of the courthouse, Michael E. Tigar, the attorney for Terry L. Nichols, who will stand trial later in the bombing case, castigated Fortier for having the gall to portray herself as righteous.

“Welcome to the dope-smoking, methamphetamine-swilling world of [Fortier’s hometown of] Kingman, Arizona,” he said. “Terry Nichols had nothing to do with that world.

“Even by the admission of the government’s star witness, Terry Nichols wasn’t involved in it.”

Fortier and her husband, Michael, had been close friends of McVeigh. They often opened their house to him for long periods of time. He was the best man at their wedding. When they went away on their honeymoon, he stayed at their home.

But, according to Fortier’s testimony for the government Tuesday, McVeigh changed dramatically after the 1993 FBI raid on a religious compound near Waco, Texas, in which about 80 people were killed. He became virulently anti-government in his politics and he warned that the time had come to “take action” against the government.

Fortier described how McVeigh, a former Army buddy of her husband’s, laid out his plans to rent a truck, stockpile ammonium nitrate and then blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

The Murrah building was destroyed on April 19, 1995--exactly two years after the FBI assault at Waco. Along with the 168 people killed, more than 500 were injured.

Under gentle questioning from chief prosecutor Joseph Hartzler, Fortier spoke with certainty Tuesday about McVeigh’s drive to punish the government for the Waco raid. She said that he became very upset when her husband refused to help him and equally angry when Nichols at one point also “wanted out” of the bomb plot.

Both defendants, if convicted, could face the death penalty. Michael Fortier, expected to testify later, has pleaded guilty to charges that he knew about the bomb plot before it was carried out, that he did not alert authorities and that he had trafficked in stolen firearms.

Under cross-examination from Jones on Wednesday, Lori Fortier was reserved, giving only “yes” or “no” answers to almost all of his questions. At one point, she admitted that she had been heavily coached by prosecutors, spending hours with Hartzler--whom she referred to as “Joe”--in “mock court” sessions to prepare for her testimony.

She also acknowledged heavy--sometimes weekly--drug use. She said that she and her husband traded and sold stolen weapons, some of which were given to her by McVeigh after they were taken in an Arkansas heist.

Jones read Fortier a series of statements made by the couple and captured by an FBI wiretap in their home after the bombing. She said that she did not remember most of the remarks, which had to do with the couple’s plans to get rich from their knowledge of the alleged bombing conspiracy.

Fortier did remember talking to her parents and discussing that “the movie and book rights” to the bombing story was “where the money is.” In other quotes, her husband mused about being paid for an appearance on television. “I found my career,” he said. “I can tell a fable. I can tell stories all day.”

“We might get some bank out of this deal,” he said at another time, referring to his hope of making a million dollars. “I was thinking one cool one.”

Jones also portrayed the 24-year-old Fortier, mother of two children, as careless. She admitted that even though she and her husband were afraid of McVeigh, they often let him stay at their home, including when their first child was a baby.

And Jones asked the witness to read a press statement that she wrote, but never delivered, shortly after the bombing. Titled “Judge not, for yee [sic] shall be judged,” the statement attacked the media for reports on McVeigh’s arrest and maintained his innocence.

It said in part: “It really sickens me when I see my friend’s, yes my FRIEND’S, face on the cover of Time magazine as the face of terror.”

Her statement also insisted that an FBI composite drawing of one of the bomb suspects did not necessarily depict McVeigh.

Under questioning, Fortier said that she and her husband kept five guns at their home, including a new $600 rifle that she used, as well as blasting caps and other explosive materials and a bag of ammonium nitrate.

She also said that they shared many of McVeigh’s anti-government’s leanings, read far-right propaganda and suspected the FBI of wrongdoing in the Waco raid. But she disagreed with McVeigh’s version of what happened to the people at Waco.

“I don’t believe they were murdered,” she said.

The trial continues today, with several McVeigh associates expected to testify about his anti-government views.