KC Framed 5 | Firefighters Case | Railroaded Part II: The Firefighters

5 Innocent People Were Convicted

Feature Article

Introduction to Part II
by J. Patrick O'Connor

Reprinted with permission.

In Part I of the Firefighters Case, "Frame Up," J. J. Maloney set forth the tortured, hapless eight-year search for the culprits responsible for igniting the explosion that killed six Kansas City firefighters at 4:08 a.m. on November 29, 1988.

"All five of those convicted are almost certainly innocent of that crime," Maloney wrote in the opening of the article. "The five became expendable because of the lives they'd led...." The Firefighter Case, in the end, became not so much a search for truth as a quest for closure. Over the years, the pressure for closure had grown intense."

In the nearly 10,000 words that comprised Part I, Maloney showed in voluminous detail the "cowboy" tactics used by ATF Special Agent Dave True to bring this case to trial, tactics for which the ATF nationally has become all too well known. While True was using every trick in the bag to frame the defendants, he was ignoring the mountain of evidence that pointed to Deborah and Robert Riggs, the two security guards on duty at the construction site the night of the explosion. Maloney meticulously reports that evidence.

Part I showed how the firefighter investigation had the federal government running for more than six years in one direction -- toward organized labor -- while local police were spinning their wheels chasing down rumors that implicated a wide array of ne'er do-wells from Marlborough, the blue-collar neighborhood in southwest Kansas City where the explosion occurred.

By 1994, both teams of investigators had come to such dead ends that, for all intents and purposes, the investigation was over: The killers had escaped the wide net; the most horrific unsolved crime in Kansas City history would remain unsolved.

With nothing to lose, the local Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office and the Kansas City Police Department decided to join forces and conduct one investigation. To accommodate the ATF, the police department agreed to replace its Crime Against Persons investigative team with detectives from its Bombs and Arson unit. This seemingly innocuous switch would put ATF Special Agent Dave True in firm, out-of-control control.

In Part I, Maloney reported how True eventually focused the investigation on five Marlborough neighborhood residents with no connection at all to labor. They just happened to have shady pasts, paupers, they were easy marks for True to turn into scapegoats.

Maloney showed how True built his case against the defendants on the shifting, untruthful testimony of one witness -- Ronnie Edwards -- and then used entrapment, deception and intimidation in an effort to turn each of the suspects against one or more of the others. None of the five defendants ever admitted any personal involvement in the crime, nor did any ever take the Fifth Amendment. Only one ever asked for a lawyer, and that suspect -- Skip Sheppard -- only one time, just before going in to face the grand jury. None of them accepted the prosecutors' offers to turn government witness. The three who were given polygraph tests took them willingly, and each passed. The two others were never polygraphed, although one, Darlene Edwards, had volunteered for it.

"Frame Up" introduced one defendant at a time, and in the process revealed just how implausible it was that these five people would have worked in unison to commit the firefighters crime. As a fivesome, they would have been incapable of going to QuikTrip to buy a six-pack of beer. To think otherwise is to know nothing about them. The defendants were broken into two distinct camps of alliance, each with a long-simmering, sneering dislike for the other side. And they had no motive. If theft were the motive, as was widely assumed and portrayed by the prosecution, Maloney dashes that possibility in Part II when he reports on the trial.

Railroaded Part II: The Firefighters Case
by J.J. Maloney
Copyright 1997

Reprinted with permission.

Indictment and Trial

The ATF has four "National Response Teams" -- teams that respond to disasters such as the Oklahoma City bombing -- and Special Agent Dave True was leader of the Midwest team. He is a distinguished looking man with silver hair and mustache.

With 26 years of government service under his belt, True, who was in his early 50s, was ready to take retirement from the ATF and open the next chapter in his life, possibly as a consultant or a security executive for a corporation. There was a hitch, though. For more than eight years, the unsolved firefighters case had dogged him. As the ATF's top special agent in Kansas City, True didn't want to retire with the biggest case of his life hanging over his head, unsolved.

According to True's testimony at trial, the firefighter investigation was dead in the water by November of 1993. (For five years, True had maintained steadfastly that organized labor was responsible for the explosions.) Then he testified that he got a call from Cap. Joe Galetti of the Kansas City Fire Department, who wanted True's help in getting the case on the "Unsolved Mysteries" television show, a last-ditch effort to solve the case.

In November, 1994, as the "Unsolved Mysteries" segment on the case was being prepared, True said he received a call from a witness saying Richard Brown had admitted to being involved in the explosion. "If there was a starting point for investigating the Marlborough area," True testified, "that was probably it."

Events didn't unfold quite as naturally as True would have us believe, however. There was considerable manipulation of events by the ATF.

In January of 1995 True orchestrated the arrest of Darlene Edwards on drug charges. Her arrest would come seven days after the airing of the "Unsolved Mysteries" episode.

Two days before the "Unsolved Mysteries" episode aired, The Kansas City Star had a front-page story that quoted Richard Cook, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Kansas City, as saying: "We've identified some individuals we believe are at least connected to the fire."

The day after the "Unsolved Mysteries" episode aired, police arrested Bryan Sheppard on a drug charge. When Bryan Sheppard appeared in court, Dave True was there to argue that a high bond should be set because Bryan Sheppard had been threatening witnesses in the firefighters case. No such witnesses were ever identified, but the allegation was publicized.

Skip Sheppard also had a court hearing in February of 1995, on a charge of transporting guns across a state line, and again True appeared in court, alleging that Skip Sheppard had been threatening witnesses in the firefighters case. When True was unable to identify any witness who had been threatened, U.S. Magistrate John Maughmer released Sheppard on bond.

On March 14, 1995, the Star ran a front-page story saying the government's investigation was focusing on the Sheppards and "...another possible suspect --a longtime girlfriend [Darlene Edwards] of one of the brothers -- was arrested by the ATF last month on drug charges." The Star's story also gave some of the possible motives for the crime: "The ATF also may have new physical evidence, including a two-way radio that may have been stolen shortly before the explosion near 87th Street and U.S. 71 . . . Some witnesses said the suspects were stealing construction equipment, while others said they intended to steal dynamite. Some said the fire was a diversion. Others said it was done for spite."

Anyone who analyzes the statements given by many of the jailhouse informants in this case, will quickly realize that this one story in the Star was a script for perjury by many of the government's witnesses. Over and over the witnesses would claim the Sheppards were up there stealing construction equipment, or dynamite, or walkie-talkies, and that the fire was a "diversion."

While all of the foregoing was occurring, the ATF had put up reward posters in Missouri and Kansas prisons offering $50,000 to anyone who would give information resulting in the conviction of those responsible for the explosions. (The original newspaper stories, in 1994, when it was announced that "Unsolved Mysteries" was preparing a segment on the explosion, said the money would be paid for information leading to an "arrest".)

Of the approximately 30,000 convicts in Missouri and Kansas, 60 to 70 contacted the ATF in response to the reward offer. No two convicts would tell the same story.

The government tried to corroborate wildly conflicting stories told by Ronnie Edwards -- the government's key witness in obtaining a grand jury indictment against the eventual five defendants -- by forcing an acquaintance of his named Orval Allen Bethard to testify, but Bethard refused. In retaliation, the government filed a federal charge of auto theft against Bethard, although no such charge had been filed in the Western District of Missouri since 1993. (Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Becker had state charges of tampering with a motor vehicle dropped, then filed the federal charge, which carried a longer potential sentence. Bethard had stolen a truck in Independence and crossed the Kansas state line during a police chase.)

Becker admitted in court that he was prosecuting Bethard because Bethard refused to cooperate in the firefighters investigation. Bethard filed a motion saying he had told True he would be perjuring himself if he corroborated Ronnie Edwards's statements.

On Feb. 14, 1997, U.S. District Judge Scott O. Wright gave Bethard a "downward departure" and expressed open disgust with the way the government had handled Bethard's case. Although the federal sentencing guidelines called for Bethard to serve 12-to-18 months in prison without parole, Wright rejected the guidelines and sentenced Bethard to five years probation, with six months in a halfway house, and restitution for the truck.

John Driver told the Star that Dave True threatened to have him indicted unless Driver cooperated with the ATF against the Sheppards. (Driver had been largely responsible, in 1989, for Bryan Sheppard being charged with six counts of second-degree murder in the firefighters case. Those charges were subsequently dismissed when it was proved that jailhouse informants were lying. In 1996 True told a federal grand jury that Driver and Chris Sciarra had been truthful in 1989, and that they only recanted their stories because they were intimidated by Bryan Sheppard's defense lawyer, John O'Connor. In reality, the 1989 charges were dismissed because the jailhouse informants had said Bryan Sheppard had confessed while a specific cartoon show was airing on Saturday morning and O'Connor proved through jail records that Bryan Sheppard was in the visiting room, in a different part of the jail, while that cartoon show was airing.)

Then there's Joseph Denyer. In an effort to get out of jail, Denyer told the ATF on Feb. 12, 1995 that Tommy Clark (Darlene's son) had stated that Darlene had transported Frank Sheppard and Skip Sheppard to Blue River Road and 71 Highway so they could steal some dynamite. "Denyer states that Tommy advised his mother, Darlene Clark (Edwards), went to Quik Trip to wait for them and later picked them up after they set the fires."

On Dec. 6, 1995 Denyer recanted his earlier story, according to a government report: "Denyer then stated all the other information to SA (special agent) Carlson was made up. Denyer felt the information would sound believable to the authorities since Tommy Edwards, Darlene Edwards, Frank Sheppard lived together and Skip Sheppard was always around. Denyer stated he was able to provide specific information about the guard's truck burning and the explosive trailers because that information was in the newspapers. Denyer claimed he contacted authorities because he was in jail and thought providing information might get him out.

Denyer's new story was that Darlene Edwards had told him she was in the QuikTrip at the time of the explosion. Denyer said he was a close personal friend of Richard Brown's (Brown, feuding with Darlene Edwards and Frank Sheppard, had told police he saw Darlene, Frank, and Skip Sheppard buying gasoline at the QuikTrip).

Despite the fact Denyer admitted fabricating information, the government went ahead and used him as a witness. When Denyer testified before the grand jury, the grand jury was not told that Denyer had previously fabricated information during the case.

Glen Shepard (no relation to the defendants), a long-time Kansas City thief, was in the Osceola, Mo., jail, facing a 25-year sentence when True showed up. Shepard later testified that he refused to cooperate when True took him before the grand jury the first time. However, on the way back to jail, True told Shepard that a municipal gun charge pending against him in Jackson County could be upgraded to a federal felony charge, which would carry considerably more time, since Shepard had a dozen or so prior felony convictions.

Shepard got the message and testified before the grand jury. Although he gave several conflicting statements, he basically said Frank Sheppard had told him that Frank Sheppard, Skip Sheppard and Richard Brown committed the crime while Darlene Edwards drove the car.

When it came time for Glen Shepard to be sentenced in state court, Dave True showed up to testify for him. Instead of going to prison for 25 years, Shepard was given two one- year sentences in the county jail (with credit for time already served) and five years of probation.

In 1972 Steven Kilgore shot Phillip Sheppard in the head, killing him. Phillip was the younger brother of Frank and Skip Sheppard. Kilgore had been Phillip Sheppard's best friend, and said it was an accident.

Kilgore had stayed away from the Sheppards for more than 20 years.

Then, in 1991, he showed up unexpectedly at Naomi Sheppard's door (Naomi Sheppard is the mother of Frank and Skip Sheppard), saying he'd like to buy a headstone for Phillip's grave. (He never did.) Kilgore told defense investigator Mark Reeder that he had gone to Phillip's grave site with Frank and Skip and that, while there, he had gotten nervous, because as he said, "You know what could happen." One has to wonder how many times he laid awake at night, wondering if Frank and Skip Sheppard would get drunk and come after him. He'd later testify for the government that Frank asked him to drive him a short distance to buy some dope. In that short period of time, Kilgore said, Frank told him that he (Frank), Skip, Larry Baker and Bryan Sheppard were responsible for the explosion (more on Kilgore's testimony later).

Perhaps the most shocking testimony before the grand jury did not come from the jailhouse snitches however -- it came from the ATF's Dave True, the only government agent to testify before the grand jury. In June, 1996, just before the grand jury voted to indict the five defendants, True was used to summarize the evidence that had been presented to the grand jury in the previous 15 months. He testified as to what the various witnesses had told the grand jury.

On May 27, 1995, Ronnie Edwards had told the grand jury that the walkie-talkies in evidence before the grand jury had belonged to Allen Bethard. (On Jan. 25, 1995, Edwards gave the police a signed statement saying the walkie-talkies had been purchased by him from defendants Richard Brown and Bryan Sheppard.) When asked if he knew where Bethard had gotten the walkie-talkies, Ronnie Edwards said: "I don't know. He came across a lot of neat tricks like that."

On June 12, 1996, this is how True would recount the testimony of Ronnie Edwards:

"He [Edwards] recalls that the evening before the explosion, he was at a bar called Billie D's at 89th and Troost, with Allen Bethard. That Darlene Edwards and Richard Brown came into the bar and asked them if before the explosion, Allen Bethard, and he believed Richard and Bryan, is what he believed, went across the street from Flora [Street], by Larry Baker's house, and broke into a construction storage-shed trailer. They took a VCR, a red tool box, some tools, and three walkie-talkies and some chargers."

On Jan. 25, 1995, Ronnie Edwards gave a signed statement to police saying that Richard Brown and Bryan Sheppard came into a bar at 89th and Troost and asked him "if I wanted some CBs. I knew they were the Motorola Intercoms from the construction site at 87th and 71 Highway. They had stolen some there before and I had bought them and I told them to go back and get some more."

Once it had been established, however, that Orval Allen Bethard had owned the CBs introduced in evidence to the grand jury, Ronnie Edwards changed his story. Edwards told the grand jury, "Darlene and Richard come into the bar and they asked Allen if he wanted to buy some more CBs. Allen said sure."

In his later statement, Ronnie Edwards said Bryan Sheppard had stayed outside because he was barred from that particular establishment at the time. However, he'd earlier told police it was Bryan Sheppard and Richard Brown who came into the bar and asked him (Ronnie Edwards) if he wanted to buy some more CBs.

True, in recounting Edwards' testimony to the grand jury, blurs the contradictions by saying Edwards had testified that Darlene Edwards and Richard Brown came into the bar and asked "them" (Ronnie Edwards and Allen Bethard) if they wanted some more CBs.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Becker, in charge of preparing this case for indictment and trial, had to be fully aware of the constantly changing -- and untrue --stories being told by Ronnie Edwards. In effect, Becker used the testimony of an obvious perjurer as the government's key witness to gain the indictment of these defendants.

At an earlier appearance before the grand jury, on March 15, 1995, Edwards explained his motive for "cooperating" with the government. Asked by Becker if he had helped the ATF build a drug case against Darlene Edwards, Ronnie Edwards said yes.

Becker: Did they pay you for assisting them?

Edwards: Yes. We worked something out, yeah.

Becker: How much was that?

Edwards: I wasn't getting paid nothing. It was part of my probation. (Edwards told the grand jury he had been arrested for credit-card fraud.)

Jerry Rooks, another witness before the grand jury, had said that Frank Sheppard told him that they had tried, but failed, to break into a shed that was built into the ground. Dave True knew full well there was no such structure on the construction site. Yet this is the question and answer presented to the grand jury:

Becker: In fact, were there two bunkers, explosives bunkers, built into the ground at the back of that site?

True: That's correct.

The two bunkers in question were simply metal boxes set on top of the ground.

True also recalled the testimony of Robert "Bear" Williams, the next-door neighbor of Darlene Edwards and Frank Sheppard. True told the grand jury that a week after the explosion, Sheppard had gone to his neighbor and sold him a large battery. True told the grand jury: "And that Frank stated that, 'This came from over there by the construction site,' and he pointed at the construction site (indicating)."

However, the actual statement of Bear Williams says nothing about the battery coming from the construction site, or that Sheppard pointed at the construction site. What Williams did tell ATF agents is: "All I remember is getting woke up one night 'bout two o'clock and he had a battery, he wanted five dollars for it. I just gave him five dollars and told him to go on and I just, I don't even remember even getting a battery. I think he just laid it down outside and I forgot about it."

Then ATF Agent Harry Lett, after Williams said he didn't know where the battery came from, suggested to Williams, "And it was one that he had stolen from a Caterpillar, obviously?" To which Williams said, "Yea. It was stolen from Caterpillar, but I don't even know if it was any good, 'cause like I said, when I bought it, I just had him put it on the ground next to the house and I forgot about it."

As to when he'd bought the battery, in relation to the time of the explosion, Williams told ATF: "Oh, I couldn't tell you that. I mean, I know it had to be, I don't know, it might have been two, three months, it might have been three weeks, I'm not sure, 'cause it's been so long ago." On that basis, True told the grand jury that Frank Sheppard sold the battery, "maybe even in that week or a week after" (During the trial, the government introduced certain items of evidence, including the $5 battery. After weeks had gone by, and the government was unable to link any item of physical evidence to any of the defendants, Judge Stevens agreed to order the government to remove all evidence from the courtroom.)

Shortly after True concluded his testimony, the grand jury indicted the defendants.

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