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Firefighter
Defendants Sentenced to Life:
They
Go Down Pleading Innocent
By J. J. Maloney
George Frank
Sheppard, who stoically sat through week after week of trial as a
defendant in the deaths of six Kansas City firefighters, and who sat
like a stone when the jury said, "Guilty," bared his soul
in a federal courtroom Wednesday shortly before being sentenced to
life imprisonment without parole.
Sheppard,
handcuffed and shackled, and wearing an orange jumpsuit, stood and
faced the families of the firefighters. At first he spoke of trying
to hold in the hatred he feels for those who prosecuted him in the
deaths of the firefighters.
Then, looking
straight at the families -- naming a half-dozen of them by name -- he
came close to tears as he said, "If I don't appear to be a
God-fearing man, I guess that's between me and God. But as God is my
witness, I had nothing to do with this crime."
Susan Hunt,
attorney for Earl "Skip" Sheppard, pleaded with the court
to send Skip to the U.S. Medical Center at Springfield, Mo., because
the brain damage he suffered in a car wreck years earlier.
Then Skip Sheppard
stood and said, "My brother said it all. But I'm innocent of
this crime."
Will Bunch,
attorney for Darlene Edwards, told the court, "I'll say
something I've never said before a sentencing: I do not believe my
client is guilty."
Darlene then stood
to profess her innocence, but was sobbing and hard to understand.
John O'Connor, who
represented Bryan Sheppard, sounded near tears as he asked the court
to show mercy to his client. O'Connor told the court, "I hope we
do have the right people here. Only they and God know if they are. I
don't know, I hope we have the right people."
Bryan Sheppard
stood and said, in tears, "I'm innocent of this crime."
John Osgood, the
former federal prosecutor who represented Richard Brown, fought
desperately all day to convince the court to not sentence the
defendants to life imprisonment. He argued passionately that the
firemen had disregarded many rules in choosing to fight a fire in a
trailer that was full of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil.
Osgood pointed out
to the court that security guard Deborah Riggs had testified at
trial, and has testified repeatedly, that she warned five of the six
firemen that the trailer on fire was loaded with ammonium nitrate and
fuel oil.
U.S. District
Judge Joseph E. Stevens Jr., commented, "I'm not prepared to
assume that all of that testimony (by Deborah Riggs) was gospel."
In many ways, what
happened in the courtroom was for effect. There was little doubt in
most people's minds that Stevens knew what he was going to do,
regardless of the arguments advanced. But there are rules that have
to be played by. Everyone had to make a record for the court appeals,
where this case heads next.
Before the court
heard from the defendants and their attorneys, the families of the
firefighters had their say (three of the families said nothing, after
it because apparent that Stevens was going to impose a life
sentence.) They mostly wanted everyone to remember that the
firefighters were good men, who died serving the people of Kansas
City -- and that they did not die because they were careless, or reckless.
Osgood told the
court that he, too, believed in his client's innocence. Pat Peters,
the attorney for Frank Sheppard, gave Judge Stevens copies of the
polygraph examination reports, showing that Frank Sheppard, Richard
Brown, and Bryan Sheppard had passed polygraph tests years earlier on
whether they were involved in the explosion that killed the firefighters.
A tearful Richard
Brown faced the families of the firefighters and asserted his
innocence. He expressed respect for the families of the firefighters,
but expressed bitterness at the government agents and lawyers who
prosecuted him.
Stevens described
the Firefighter Case as "the most difficult case I've ever had
to deal with" in 16 years on the federal bench.
Then he sentenced
each of the defendants to life imprisonment without parole. He also
ordered them to make restitution of more than $500,000 each, which
will be deducted from the pittances they earn while waiting to die in prison. |
