Bail Revoked for 3 Men in Bomb Case

A federal judge has revoked bail for the director of an Alabama paramilitary survivalist school and two other men accused in a bombing case, while a fourth man was arrested in Rhode Island.

Prosecutors allege that two Orange County women hired the men to carry out two firebombings in San Bernardino County last Aug. 13. No one was injured in either bombing.

U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson on Thursday revoked the bail of Franklin Camper, 39, director of the Mercenary School in Dolomite, Ala.; his associate, Paul Johnson, 42, and a part-time instructor at the school, Paul LaRosa Cuneo, 22.

Bid to Block Release

A federal magistrate in Birmingham, Ala., on Wednesday had set bond for Camper and Cuneo at $15,000 each and for Johnson at $5,000. All three were arrested Tuesday on charges of malicious damaging of property by fire and explosives and conspiracy to violate federal explosives law. Prosecutors here had sought to block their release.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles J. Stevens said that Cuneo would be rearrested. Camper and Johnson were still in custody and were to be transferred to Los Angeles, he added.

Another part-time instructor at Camper’s school, William Dean Hedgecorth, 22, was arrested on the same charges Thursday in Newport, R.I.

The government alleges that Charlotte Wyckoff, 51, and Leta Hamilton, 39, owners of several nursery and elementary schools, sought to intimidate former employees who had filed complaints against them with two state agencies.

The government alleges that the two women and four men plotted firebombings that destroyed the former teachers’ cars.

Hearing Postponed

A bail hearing in Los Angeles for the women, who lived together in Dana Point, was postponed Wednesday until next week after Wyckoff’s daughter urged U.S. Magistrate Volney V. Brown Jr. to keep her mother and Hamilton in jail after expressing fear of the two women.

In a related development, California officials said they intend to inspect the preschools and elementary preparatory schools owned by the two women to make sure that the children are being properly supervised.

Camper’s training camp had received national attention after allegations that instructors there had trained Gupartap Singh Birk, a Sikh who was acquitted in New York last March on charges of plotting to assassinate Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.