The Siege at Ruby Ridge (Part I)

Ruby Ridge was the site of an 11-day siege in 1992 in the northwest United States in Boundary County, Idaho, near Naples. It began on August 21, when Randy Weaver, members of his immediate family, and family friend Kevin Harris resisted deputies of the United States Marshals Service (USMS) and the Hostage Rescue Team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI HRT).

During a Marshals Service reconnoiter of the Weaver property pursuant to a bench warrant for Weaver after his failure to appear on firearms charges, an initial encounter between six U.S. Marshals and the Weavers resulted in a shootout and the deaths of deputy U.S. Marshal William Francis Degan, age 42, the Weavers' son Samuel (Sammy), age 14, and the Weavers' family dog (Striker). In the subsequent siege of the Weaver residence, led by the FBI, Weaver's 43-year-old wife Vicki was killed by FBI sniper fire. All casualties occurred on the first two days of the operation. The siege and stand-off were ultimately resolved by civilian negotiators, with the surrender and arrest of Kevin Harris on August 30, and the surrender of Randy Weaver and the surviving Weaver children the next day.

Weaver and Harris were subsequently arraigned on a variety of federal criminal charges, including first-degree murder for the death of Degan. Harris was acquitted of all charges, and Weaver was subsequently acquitted of all charges except for the original bail condition violation for the arms charges and for having missed his original court date. He was fined $10,000 and sentenced to 18 months in prison, credited with time served plus an additional three months, then released.

During the federal criminal trial of Weaver and Harris, Weaver's attorney Gerry Spence made accusations of "criminal wrongdoing" against the agencies involved in the incident, in particular, the FBI, the USMS, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), and the United States Attorney's Office (USAO) for Idaho. At the completion of the trial, the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility formed the Ruby Ridge Task Force (RRTF) to investigate Spence's charges. A redacted HTML version of the RRTF report was publicly released by Lexis Counsel Connect, an information service for attorneys, which raised questions about the conduct and policies of all of the participating agencies. A PDF version of the report was later posted by the Justice Department.

Both the Weaver family and Harris brought civil suits against the government over the events of the firefight and siege, the Weavers winning a combined out-of-court settlement in August 1995 of $3.1 million, and Harris being awarded, after persistent appeals, a $380,000 settlement in September 2000.

To answer public questions about Ruby Ridge, the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information held hearings between September 6 and October 19, 1995, and subsequently issued a report calling for reforms in federal law enforcement to prevent a repeat of the losses of life at Ruby Ridge, and to restore public confidence in federal law enforcement.  It was noted that the Ruby Ridge incident and the 1993 Waco siege involved many of the same agencies (e.g., the FBI HRT and the ATF) and some of the same personnel (e.g., the FBI HRT commander.)

The Boundary County prosecutor indicted FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi for manslaughter in 1997 before the statute of limitations for this charge could expire; the Idaho v. Horiuchi case was moved to federal court which has jurisdiction over federal agents.  Here, it underwent a supremacy clause dismissal, an en banc reversal on appeal of the dismissal, and ultimately, the dropping of charges after a change in the local prosecutor.

Geography

Ruby Ridge is the southernmost of four ridges that extend east from the Bottleneck/Roman Nose mountain range toward the Kootenai River.  Caribou Ridge lies north of it, and the area between them drains into the Ruby Creek. Some local maps have identified Ruby Ridge as an extension of Caribou Ridge, but press reporting on the Weaver standoff used the federally recognized name.  As the crow flies, it is approximately thirty miles (50 km) south of Canada (British Columbia).

Development

Randy Weaver, a former Iowa factory worker and U.S. Army combat engineer, moved with his family to northern Idaho during the 1980s so they could "home-school his children and escape what he and his wife Vicki saw as a corrupted world."  In 1978, Vicki, the religious leader of the family, began to have recurrent dreams of living on a mountaintop and believed that the apocalypse was imminent.  After the birth of their first son, Samuel, the Weavers began selling their belongings and learning to live without electricity.  They bought twenty acres (8 ha) of land on Ruby Ridge in 1983 and began building a cabin; the property was located in Boundary County on a hillside on Ruby Creek opposite Caribou Ridge, northwest of nearby Naples.

In 1984, Randy Weaver and his neighbor Terry Kinnison had a dispute over a $3,000 land deal. Kinnison lost the ensuing lawsuit and was ordered to pay Weaver an additional $2,100 in court costs and damages. Kinnison wrote letters to the FBI, Secret Service, and county sheriff alleging Weaver had threatened to kill the Pope, the President, and governor of Idaho.

In January 1985, the FBI and the Secret Service began an investigation of allegations that Randy Weaver had made threats against the President and other government and law enforcement officials.  On February 12, Randy and Vicki Weaver were interviewed by two FBI agents, two Secret Service agents, and the Boundary County sheriff and his chief investigator.  The Secret Service was told that Weaver was a member of the Aryan Nations and that he had a large weapons cache at his residence; Weaver denied the allegations, and no charges were filed.

The investigation noted that Weaver associated with Frank Kumnick, who was known to associate with members of the Aryan Nations. Weaver told the investigators that neither he nor Kumnick was a member of the Aryan Nations and described Kumnick as "associated with the Covenant, Sword, and Arm of the Lord."  On February 28, 1985, Randy and Vicki Weaver filed an affidavit with the county courthouse alleging that their personal enemies were plotting to provoke the FBI into attacking and killing the Weaver family.   On May 6, 1985, Randy and Vicki Weaver sent a letter to President Ronald Reagan, claiming that Weaver's enemies may have sent the president a threatening letter under a forged signature. No evidence of a threatening letter surfaced; however, the 1985 letter was cited by the prosecutor in 1992 as Overt Act 7 of the Weaver family conspiracy against the federal government.

ATF involvement

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms first became aware of Weaver in July 1986 when he was introduced to a confidential ATF informant at a meeting at the World Aryan Congress.  The informant portrayed himself as a weapons dealer.  Weaver had been invited by Frank Kumnick, who was the original target of the ATF investigation. It was Weaver's first attendance. Over the next three years, Weaver and the informant met several times.  In July 1989, Weaver invited the informant to his home to discuss forming a group to fight the "Zionist Organized Government", referring to the U.S. Government.   In October 1989, the ATF claimed that Weaver sold the informant two sawed-off shotguns, with the overall length of the guns shorter than the legal limit set by federal law. In November 1989, Weaver accused the ATF informant of being a spy for the police; Weaver later wrote he had been warned by "Rico V."   The informant's handler, Herb Byerly, ordered him to have no further contact with Weaver. Eventually, the FBI informant Rico Valentino outed the ATF informant to Aryan Nations security.

In June 1990, ATF agent Byerly attempted to use the sawed-off shotgun charge as leverage to get Weaver to act as an informant for his investigation into the Aryan Nations.  When Weaver refused to become "a snitch," the ATF filed the gun charges in June 1990, also claiming Weaver was a bank robber with criminal convictions (those claims were false: at that time Weaver had no criminal record, and the subsequent Senate investigation found: "Weaver was not a suspect in any bank robberies.")  A federal grand jury later indicted him in December 1990 for making and possessing, but not for selling, illegal weapons in October 1989.

The ATF concluded it would be too dangerous for the arresting agents to arrest Weaver at his property.  In January 1991, ATF agents posed as broken-down motorists and arrested Randy Weaver when he and Vicki stopped to assist.  Weaver was told of the charges against him, released on bail, and told that his trial would begin on February 19, 1991. On January 22, the judge in the case notified the attorney Everett Hofmeister that he (Hofmeister) would be serving as Weaver's attorney.  On that same day, Weaver called the U.S. probation officer Karl Richins and told him, he (Weaver) was instructed to contact him (Richins), on that date. Richins did not have the case file at that time, so he asked Weaver to leave his contact information and Richins would contact him when he received the paperwork. According to Richins, Weaver did not give him a telephone number.  The defense counsel Hofmeister sent letters to Weaver on January 19, January 31, and February 5, asking Weaver to contact him to work on his defense within the federal court system.

On February 5, the trial date was changed from February 19 to 20 to give participants more travel time following a federal holiday. The court clerk sent a letter to the parties informing them of the date change, but the notice was not sent directly to Weaver, only to his attorney. On February 7, the probation officer sent Weaver a letter indicating that he now had the case file and needed to talk with Weaver. This letter erroneously indicated that Weaver's trial date was set for March 20.   On February 8, Hofmeister again attempted to contact Weaver by letter informing him that the trial was to begin on February 20 and that Weaver needed to contact him immediately. Hofmeister also made several calls to individuals who knew Weaver asking them to have Weaver call him. Hofmeister told U.S. District Court Judge Harold Ryan he did not hear from Weaver before the scheduled court date.

When Weaver did not appear in court on February 20, Judge Ryan issued a bench warrant for failure to appear in court.  On February 26, Ken Keller, a reporter for the Kootenai Valley Times, telephoned the U.S. Probation Office and asked whether the reason that Weaver did not show in court on February 20 was that the letter sent to him by Richins had the incorrect date.  Upon finding a copy of the letter, the Chief Probation Officer, Terrence Hummel, contacted Judge Ryan's clerk and informed them of the incorrect date in the letter. Hummel also contacted the U.S. Marshals Service and Weaver's attorney informing them of the error. The judge, however, refused to withdraw the bench warrant.

The U.S. Marshals Service did agree to put off executing the warrant until after March 20 to see whether Weaver would show up in court on that day. If he were to show up on March 20, the DOJ claimed that all indications are that the warrant would have been dropped.  Instead of waiting to see whether Weaver would show up on March 20, however, the U.S. Attorney's Office (USAO) called a grand jury on March 14. The USAO failed to provide the grand jury with Richins' letter (which contained the error that the trial date was March 20), and the grand jury issued an indictment for failure to appear.

U.S. Marshals Service involvement

When the Weaver case was passed from the ATF to the Marshals Service, no one informed the marshals of the fact that ATF had attempted to solicit Weaver as an informant.

As the law enforcement arm of the federal court, it was the duty of the U.S. Marshals to bring in Randy Weaver, now considered a fugitive.  Unlike most federal fugitives, who flee across state lines to avoid arrest, Weaver simply stayed in his remote home, threatening to resist any attempt to take him by force.

Weaver was known to have an intense distrust of government, and it is believed that the erroneous Richins letter increased this sentiment and may have contributed to his reluctance to appear for trial. Weaver was clearly suspicious of what he viewed as inconsistent messages from the government and his own lawyer, and this inconsistency further enforced his belief that there was a conspiracy against him.  Weaver came to believe that he would not receive a fair trial if he were to appear in court. His distrust grew further when he was erroneously told by his magistrate that if he lost the trial, he would lose his land, essentially leaving Vicki homeless, and that the government would take away his children.

U.S. Marshals Service officers made a series of attempts to have Weaver surrender peacefully, but Weaver refused to leave his cabin. Weaver negotiated with U.S. Marshals Ron Evans, W. Warren Mays, and David Hunt through third parties from March 5 to October 12, 1991, when Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron Howen directed that the negotiations cease.  The U.S. Attorney directed that all negotiations would go through Weaver's court-appointed counsel; however, Weaver did not have any contact with the attorney and refused to talk with him. Marshals then began preparing plans to capture Weaver to stand trial on the weapons charges and his failure to appear at the correct trial date.

Although marshals stopped the negotiations as ordered, they made other contact. On March 4, 1992, U.S. Marshals Evans and Jack Cluff drove to the Weaver property and spoke with Weaver posing as real-estate prospects.  At a March 27 USMS HQ meeting, Art Roderick code named the operation "Northern Exposure".  Surveillance teams were dispatched and cameras were set up to record activity at Weaver's residence. Marshals observed that Weaver and his family responded to vehicles and other visitors by taking up armed positions around the cabin until the visitors were recognized.

Threat source profile

Beginning in February 1991, U.S. Marshals developed a Threat Source Profile on Randy Weaver. The evolution of that profile was later criticized in a 1995 report by a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee:

The Subcommittee is ... concerned that, as Marshals investigating the Weaver case learned facts that contradicted information they previously had been provided, they did not adequately integrate their updated knowledge into their overall assessment of who Randy Weaver was or what threat he might pose. If the Marshals made any attempt to assess the credibility of the various people who gave them information about Weaver, they never recorded their assessments. Thus, rather than maintaining the Threat Source Profile as a living document, the Marshals added new reports to an ever-expanding file, and their overall assessment never really changed. These problems rendered it difficult for other law enforcement officials to assess the Weaver case accurately without the benefit of first-hand briefings from persons who had continuing involvement with him.

Many of the people used by the marshals as third party go-betweens on the Weaver case—Bill and Judy Grider, Alan Jeppeson, Richard Butler—were evaluated by the marshals as more radical than the Weavers themselves. When Deputy U.S. Marshal (DUSM) Dave Hunt asked Bill Grider about Weaver: "Why shouldn't I just go up there ... and talk to him?" Grider replied, "Let me put it to you this way. If I was sitting on my property and somebody with a gun comes to do me harm, then I'll probably shoot him."  In the later Department of Justice OPR Ruby Ridge Task Force Report, Grider's words were incorrectly reported as a threat made by Weaver.

The profile included "a brief psychological profile completed by a person who had conducted no first-hand interviews and was so unfamiliar with the case that he referred to Weaver as 'Mr. Randall' throughout".   A later memo circulated within the DOJ opined that:

The assumptions of federal and some state and local law enforcement personnel about Weaver—that he was a Green Beret, that he would shoot on sight anyone who attempted to arrest him, that he had collected certain types of arms, that he had "booby-trapped" and tunneled his property—exaggerated the threat he posed.

Rivera helicopter incident

Following a fly-over by a hired helicopter for Geraldo Rivera's Now It Can Be Told television show on April 18, 1992, U.S. Marshal Service HQ received media reports that Weaver had shot at the helicopter.  That day in Idaho, a U.S. Marshals team was installing surveillance cameras overlooking the Weaver property.  The field report for April 18, filed by Marshal W. Warren Mays, reported seeing a helicopter near the Weaver property, but not hearing any shots fired.  Weaver is on record via interview with a local newspaper as having denied that anyone had fired at the helicopter.  The helicopter pilot Richard Weiss eventually gave evidence in an FBI interview denying that Weaver fired on his helicopter, and the Report of the RRTF to the OPR (1994) states that when the "indictment [of Weaver] was presented to the grand jury, the prosecution had evidence that no shots had been fired at the helicopter."

The media reports that Weaver had fired on the Rivera helicopter became part of the justification later cited by USMS Wayne "Duke" Smith and FBI HRT Commander Richard Rogers in drawing up the Ruby Ridge Rules of Engagement on August 21–22, 1992. Also, in spite of Richard Weiss's repeated denials that shots had been fired at his helicopter, U.S. Attorney Ron Howen would charge that, as Overt Act 32 of the Weaver's Conspiracy Against the Federal Government, Randy, Vicki, and Harris fired two shots at the Rivera helicopter.

Operation "Northern Exposure" was suspended for three months due to the confirmation hearings for United States Marshals Service Director Henry E. Hudson.