Bail Sought for Man Held in Alleged Bomb Plot

Frank Boyd Cockrell II appeared at a bail-review hearing Monday in the Ventura County Courthouse he is accused of plotting to blow up to wipe out his upcoming fraud trial.

Attorneys agreed that the hearing should be delayed until Wednesday, when a judge will decide whether Cockrell will be allowed to post bail.

Cockrell, 49, was returned to the Ventura County Jail where he had been transferred over the weekend after federal agents arrested him at his Sherman Oaks home Wednesday in the alleged truck-bomb plot.

He has not been charged in the bombing case.

Cockrell’s attorney, Edward Whipple, declined to comment on Monday’s court appearance, in which Cockrell asked that he be freed on bail before facing trial on charges of grand theft, securities fraud, selling unregistered securities, money laundering and tax evasion.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Aveis said Wednesday’s hearing will include the same evidence that he presented Sept. 22 to persuade a judge to issue a no-bail warrant for Cockrell’s arrest after the alleged bomb plot surfaced.

Judge Robert C. Bradley had declared then that Cockrell is “a serious, serious threat to public safety” before signing a warrant for him to be arrested and held without bail in the fraud case.

A federal agent testified at last week’s warrant hearing that Cockrell plotted to blow up the courthouse to kill Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury and as many judges and investigators as possible, set fire to a Ventura refinery, launch a rocket attack on the Ventura Freeway to cripple it and commit other acts of mayhem to avoid going to trial on the fraud charges.

Cockrell also hoped one day to write a book and produce a movie about the attacks, according to testimony by Charles Pratt, an undercover agent for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Pratt testified that he posed as an anti-government militia leader and let Cockrell think he was recruiting Pratt into the plan.

Pratt testified that Cockrell paid him $2,000 cash to kidnap a wealthy Sherman Oaks car dealer and his wife. While holding the woman hostage, Pratt testified, Cockrell wanted him to lead the dealer around to the dealership and various other stores he owned and collect cash, guns, jewelry and other valuables that could be sold to finance the bombing.

Then, Pratt testified, he was to put the couple back in their house and kill them by burning it down.

The bombing was meant to demolish the courthouse and obliterate all evidence against Cockrell, who has been indicted on charges that he bilked investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in Ventura County and elsewhere.

Cockrell and his wife, Grace Whest Cockrell, and three others are accused of swindling people who thought they were buying stock in a company that sold surety bonds to minority building contractors involved with the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Prosecutors say they have evidence from multiple bank accounts that shows that the money paid to First American Contractors Bonding Assn. was funneled elsewhere for Cockrell’s personal use.

Aveis said the theft and fraud trial is still scheduled for Nov. 3.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles County prosecutors are preparing to arraign Cockrell on charges of solicitation for murder, sometime after the Ventura hearing.

And the ATF is working with the U.S. attorney’s office on possible charges stemming from the alleged plot to bomb the courthouse and terrorize the city of Ventura.