No New Charges Planned Against Bush Case Figure

The U.S. Secret Service does not plan to ask for additional charges against an Oxnard man who reportedly made threatening statements against President Bush, a federal agent said Monday.

Thomas Robert Ward, 45, of Oxnard was indicted by a federal grand jury on Nov. 1 on two counts of possessing unregistered firearms and illegal silencers.

“We don’t anticipate charging him for any violations” stemming from his alleged statements threatening the chief executive, said Douglas Carver, resident agent in the Secret Service’s Santa Barbara office.

Carver added, however, that the Secret Service’s investigation of Ward will not be officially closed until his trial is completed in the event that any new information is discovered by the U.S. attorney’s office.

Ward’s trial on the firearms charges is scheduled for Jan. 7.

Ward, the son of a former Oxnard mayor, appeared at a pretrial hearing on Monday before U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima. Ward did not speak at the hearing.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Christopher Tayback said that according to a financial affidavit filed by Ward, the defendant does not have enough cash to afford a private attorney. Tashima appointed a public defender to represent Ward.

According to his affidavit, Ward said he is a self-employed real estate broker with an annual income of $160,000. He listed his only financial obligation as the $750-a-month rent that he pays for a condominium that he rents in Hollywood Beach.

Also, Ward said in the affidavit that he owned an undeveloped lot in Oxnard, which he estimated was worth $135,000.

“But he doesn’t have any liquid assets to pay an attorney at this time,” Tayback said. “So the judge ordered him to deed over (the real estate) to the court for reimbursement” of his defense attorney.

Tashima placed a limit of $3,000 on the amount that Ward would have to pay his attorney, Tayback said.

Ward reportedly told a neighbor last summer that he had conducted surveillance of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library site near Simi Valley. The neighbor then related the conversation to authorities.

In that conversation, Ward reportedly made threatening statements against President Bush, who was one of five U.S. Presidents who attended the Nov. 4 Reagan library ceremony.

During a subsequent interrogation by agents of the U.S. Secret Service, Ward did not recall making such statements. But he added that if he did, he might have been drinking at the time.

Since then, Carver said the Secret Service has been investigating Ward’s background, including his friends and associates.

Carver said that investigation has been completed, and that unless something unexpectedly arises at Ward’s scheduled trial, the Secret Service does not plan to reopen its inquiry or press for additional charges.

“Ward was an avid gun collector,” Carver said. “But he does not have a history of expressing animosity” toward political figures such as President Bush, he said.

Ward was arrested on Oct. 20 by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents and Ventura County sheriff’s deputies after the discovery that he had a cache of automatic weapons and 27,000 rounds of ammunition in his garage.

Ward is being held without bail at the U.S. Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. If convicted, the maximum penalty under federal law on each count is a fine of $250,000 and a prison term of 10 years.