Leavitt won’t sue FBI

Denise Cardinal

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 1998 | 9:50 a.m.

William Job Leavitt Jr. said he doesn't plan to sue the government for falsely accusing him of possessing the deadly anthrax bacteria.

"It is over, it is done, I want to get on with my life," Leavitt said at a press conference Monday evening.

Local civil rights attorneys and experts agree that the Logandale man doesn't have much of a case against the government.

"They had a search warrant to look at his house," Robert Kossack, a local civil rights attorney said. "And the search wasn't unreasonable."

His case is especially flimsy when compared to that of Richard Jewell -- the security guard falsely accused of planting an explosive in Olympic Park in Atlanta in 1996.

One woman was killed and more than 100 were injured in the incident. The FBI and worldwide media focused attention on Jewell for 88 days, though all charges were eventually dropped.

"There, the FBI was releasing statements specifically implicating Jewell, without conclusions," Kossack said, comparing the two situations. "And most of Jewell's complaints were against the media."

Conversely, Leavitt thanked the media at Monday's press conference, calling their coverage of him and his family "professional."

But Leavitt could press charges against the FBI's source, Ronald Rockwell, according to Kossack.

"Leavitt might have a very good slander case against the source," Kossack said. "If the guy lied to the FBI and all this headache came down on Leavitt, then we have the defamatory false information leading to damage and that's what slander is all about."

Dominic Gentile, a Las Vegas First Amendment lawyer, said the FBI could also press charges against Rockwell if it turns out he lied. A couple of years ago, he said, the Drug Enforcement Agency prosecuted one of its own informants for giving false information.

"The FBI damn well better prosecute if you're dealing with a situation where the informant lied to the bureau that resulted in an innocent person getting arrested," Gentile said. "If they don't prosecute that informant, they're inviting other informants who are out there to lie at will thinking that they'll never be tested."

Richard Siegel, a political science professor and vice president of the American Civil Liberties Union Nevada Chapter, said that Leavitt's legal case against the FBI or Rockwell is irrelevant.

"We're probably facing, as we did with AIDS and with airports, tremendous pressure to give up our civil rights," Siegel said, pointing out that Leavitt gave up much of his right to privacy in cooperating with the FBI. "The one of our rights that is eroding most quickly in our country is our right to privacy."

The courts, Siegel said, have a strong history of upholding the government's right to confiscate private property because of the war on drugs or because of the threat of terrorism.

"As soon as people are convinced there is a real danger to Americans from this, there'll be a big push to give up privacy rights and respond to that," he said.

Instead of harboring a grudge against the FBI for his arrest and the search of his home and labs, Leavitt thanked them for their work.

During the press conference, he also apologized to the members of the Mormon Church for any embarrassment he might have caused them.

A former bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Leavitt has been referred to as a staunch Mormon in media accounts of his arrest.

"We feel it is unfortunate that the charges have been brought against him (Leavitt)," Ashley Hall, director of public affairs for the LDS Church of Nevada said, adding that there isn't a specific stance the church is taking on the situation. "The church really has nothing to do with the issue."

But Leavitt's public apology for the church brings to light the close-knit nature of the religion that Leavitt himself said helped him during the three days he spent in solitary confinement in the Clark County Detention Center.

Leavitt is fasting, a practice that many Mormons participate in when undergoing a particularly trying moment in their lives.

His mother, Mary "Betty" Leavitt, told the SUN that she received letters and phone calls from several LDS church members, many who haven't been in contact with the family for years.

Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, a Mormon, wrote and sent a letter to U.S. District Court testifying to Leavitt's character.

"I have always known Bill to be an active leader in both civic and church-related issues," he wrote.

Though there is no official statement from the Mormon Church stating that members should support each other, there is a definite feeling among members that they need to watch out for each other.

Some members, who asked not to be named, said the protectionism stems from the days when the Mormons headed West to escape prosecution.

"Then, they needed to watch their backs and help each other," one member said. "They still sort of think like that now."