Sacramento Bee on McDavid: Defense spars with terror witness

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/376365.html

Defense spars with terror witness
She crossed the line in conspiracy, attorney says of undercover FBI plant.
By Denny Walsh - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, September 13, 2007
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B1

A key witness in a domestic terrorism conspiracy case against a Placer
County man parried Wednesday with a defense lawyer determined to show that
the witness, while working undercover for the FBI, was more active in the
conspiracy than federal guidelines allow.

On the third day of Eric McDavid's trial, his attorney Mark Reichel also
kept coming back to the subject of his client's romantic aspirations
regarding the witness.

To shield her true identity, the witness testified only as "Anna," the
alias she used while posing as a radical environmental activist opposed to
government and big business. The judge knows her real name, as does
Reichel, who agreed to the unusual arrangement.

McDavid, 29, is charged with conspiring to damage and destroy property,
including government facilities, by means of fire and explosives. His
alleged targets included a U.S. Forest Service genetics tree lab in
Placerville and the Nimbus Dam and nearby fish hatchery in Rancho Cordova.

"Anna," 21, was in the witness chair for the first time in her life, but
she never lost composure and even seemed to warm to Reichel, laughing at
his amusing remarks and indulging the veteran defense lawyer's folksy,
conversational style of cross-examination.

Reichel sought to demonstrate, for example, that "Anna" crossed the line
set out in federal directives when she supplied McDavid and two others
with a notebook containing handwritten bomb-making recipes.

She testified that the recipes had been prepared by FBI agents with one
key ingredient missing. They were duds, to use Reichel's word, but McDavid
and his two cohorts never realized that.

"Anna" also testified that in December 2005, less than a month before she
gave the small, black notebook to McDavid, she received approval from the
FBI to engage in criminal activity. Specifically, she said, she was
authorized to advise the trio on gathering and mixing chemicals required
to make explosives, and to conduct surveillance of potential bombing
targets.

The group of four -- "Anna" and the three people later charged with the
conspiracy -- called the notebook the "burn book," because they agreed to
burn it when they finished a planned nationwide bombing campaign aimed at
government and corporate facilities.

"Anna" acknowledged she encouraged another of the conspirators, Lauren
Weiner, to participate in mixing chemicals, and was insistent that
McDavid, Weiner, and the third conspirator, Zachary Jenson, identify
potential targets they were comfortable with.

Weiner, 21, and Jenson, 22, have pleaded guilty to their roles in the
conspiracy and are expected to testify against McDavid in return for
leniency when they are sentenced.

Reichel elicited from "Anna" that she pushed to meet with the three
conspirators in California in November 2005, ignoring McDavid's plea that
family business had him tied up. She testified she told McDavid she
"wanted to get everyone together to talk."

When Weiner couldn't come up with travel money, "Anna" paid for her to fly
from Philadelphia to Sacramento, where the two women met McDavid and
Jenson at Cesar Chavez Park and then proceeded to McDavid's family home in
Foresthill for the meeting.

"Anna" even paid for Weiner's cab to the airport in Philadelphia.

"Had you been instructed that you were allowed to assume a leadership
role?" Reichel asked her.

"No," she replied.

"Had you been instructed that you could push people to do things they
didn't want to do?" the defense lawyer asked.

"No," she again replied.

On redirect examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Steven Lapham,
"Anna" testified that the FBI wanted her to set up the California meeting
because the bureau was anxious to learn if the three conspirators were
ready to go through with the bombing campaign.

"Anna" acknowledged to Reichel that McDavid told her he loved her at a
protest they joined in Philadelphia in June 2005.

On Oct. 26, 2005, "Anna" received an e-mail from McDavid telling her that
she was "never far from my thoughts and my heart," and "that last embrace
in Philly gave me chills."

On redirect examination by Lapham, she testified she never had "romantic
relations with the defendant," and never had "any romantic interest" in
him.

The October e-mail prompted "Anna" to discuss with FBI agents how she
should handle McDavid's infatuation and she was advised to keep him at bay
by telling him "mission first and romance later," she testified.

"Anna" said she put the advice to use when McDavid pressed the issue when
she visited Foresthill. She told him she was "not ready for a sexual
relationship."

The encounter took place in her rental car equipped by the FBI with a
hidden recording device.

Further questioning by Reichel brought out that "Anna" also told McDavid
on that occasion, "I honestly don't know how I feel right now."

She testified she said that on the advice of FBI agents, who instructed
her not to "shoot him down hard" because "it might cause an unstable
reaction."

Reichel's theory is that without the desire to stay in close touch with
"Anna," which she did not discourage, his client would not have been
willing to continue planning the bombing campaign.

"Anna's" testimony concluded Wednesday.

The trial resumes Monday in the court of U.S. District Judge Morrison C.
England Jr.