2 in Firebomb Case May Plead to Lesser Counts, Lawyer Says

Two Dana Point teachers charged with retaining a team of Alabama mercenaries to firebomb cars and harass dissident school employees have been offered a chance to plead guilty to reduced charges, a defense lawyer said late Thursday.

The women, Charlotte Ruth Wyckoff and Elizabeth Leta Hamilton, face federal charges of paying thousands of dollars to a band of mercenaries to bomb cars belonging to former school employees. The employees were fired for various reasons, including filing complaints with state agencies about overcrowding and understaffing at Wyckoff’s chain of private schools in Orange and San Bernardino counties.

A 10-count indictment filed in federal court on June 19 charged Wyckoff and Hamilton with conspiracy, racketeering, firebombing and aiding and abetting these crimes. If convicted on all counts, they could face up to 100 years in prison. The two have been held without bail since their arrest on May 20.

Their trial is set to begin Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court.

The deal presented to the women late Thursday by prosecutors would reduce the charges to two counts, said James M. Epstein, who represents Hamilton.

“There is a possibility they will plead (guilty) to one count of being an accessory after the fact and one count of racketeering based on a conspiracy after the fact but not to the firebombing charges,” Epstein told The Times Thursday night.

The women won’t plead guilty to any count involving a firebombing, he said.

“They would never admit they knew there was a firebombing because they didn’t,” Epstein said.

He and Wyckoff’s attorney, David E. Kenner, visited their clients Thursday at Sybil Brand Institute for Women in Los Angeles to present the government’s proposal. He said the women haven’t made up their minds yet but are expected to respond shortly.

If the women plead guilty to the reduced charges, they would face no minimum prison sentence but a maximum of 20 years. If they go to trial and are convicted on all charges, they face a minimum of 12 1/2 years in jail, Epstein said.

Assistant U.S. Attys. Charles S. Stevens and David W. Wiechert could not be reached for comment late Thursday. The case began to unfold after San Bernardino County sheriff’s investigators realized that there was a common thread between two Aug. 13, 1985, firebombings, in Ontario and Etiwanda, according to Sgt. Paul Kellner.

Both firebombing victims previously worked for Wyckoff and had complained about working conditions at the schools before they were fired. One woman was fired two days after an evaluator for the state Department of Social Services arrived for an inspection at one of Wyckoff’s schools, according to the government’s trial memo.

The two former employees also filed claims against Wyckoff for back wages with the California Labor Board and won their cases, according to court documents.

Based on an apparent connection between the bombings and Franklin J. Camper, the owner of a training camp for mercenaries in Alabama, Kellner said, his department decided to turn the case over to agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms because it involved an interstate investigation.

In July, 1985, a month before the bombings, an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent went undercover at Camper’s Jefferson County school and learned that a Southern California woman wanted help with some “unconventional security,” at a private school, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.

Later, federal prosecutors were able to connect Camper to the women through telephone bills and bank records, according to the government attorneys.

In May, a Los Angeles federal judge issued warrants for the arrest of seven people, including Camper, his girlfriend and three teachers at his training camp. Two defendants, Paul Johnson and James Cuneo, have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

Camper and the others have pleaded not guilty and are expected to go to trial next week.