Gritz Ends Second Round of Talks at ‘Freemen’ Ranch

Former Green Beret Col. James “Bo” Gritz concluded a second round of talks with the “freemen” on Sunday as the FBI kept watch on the anti-government group’s remote compound for the 35th day.

Gritz spent more than seven hours with the group Saturday and again Sunday. He was accompanied on both visits to the ranch by retired Phoenix Police Officer Jack McLamb.

FBI agents searched the two men and their car after they left the compound.

Gritz emerged with a 26-page document from the freemen that uses legal cases, common law rulings and other sources to challenge the constitutionality of the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies.

“Every man, woman and child agreed they will walk out--right now--if the United States government can prove that the documents which I’m going to give you are not the law,” Gritz said at a news conference.

“To me, that sounds like quite a challenge.”

The freemen also sent out a videotape in which they attempt to explain themselves. Gritz gave the tape to FBI agents, who said they would allow the media to make copies. Gritz said he had not watched the tape.

Gritz described Sunday’s negotiations as “verbal judo all day,” a reference to what he called the “legal mumbo jumbo” spoken by the freemen. He said he will return to the compound today.

Gritz helped end a 1992 standoff in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, between the FBI and white separatist Randy Weaver, whom he persuaded to surrender. Gritz had wanted Weaver to accompany him to the freemen’s enclave about 30 miles northwest of Jordan, but Weaver said Saturday that the FBI would not allow it.

Gritz, who gave the first public report of life in the compound Saturday, said the group appeared to be running low on food. He also said that all of the adult men he saw wore pistols and that there were numerous rifles in their farmhouse.

He saw 16 people in the main house on the ranch but was told there were 22 people on the property. The FBI has estimated 18 people to be in the compound.

On Saturday, one of the men holed up at the complex surrendered to the FBI. Stewart Douglas Waterhouse, 37, is believed to have run a roadblock a day after the standoff began.

Waterhouse faces charges of being an accessory after the fact for entering the compound and joining the standoff, U.S. Atty. Sherry Scheel Matteucci said. He was to appear before a judge today.

Waterhouse’s surrender was the first since Ebert W. Stanton, 23, and his mother, Agnes B. Stanton, 52, left the compound April 11.

The freemen contend they are not subject to federal or state laws, but are citizens of their own country, governed only by common law.