2 Men Plead Not Guilty to Gun, Bomb Plot Charges

Suggesting that their clients may be victims of an overreaction to Y2K fears, attorneys entered not-guilty pleas Monday on behalf of two Northern California men indicted on firearms charges arising from an alleged bombing plot.

The defendants, Kevin Ray Patterson, 42, of Camino, and Charles D. Kiles, 49, of Placerville, were arrested early this month as a federal anti-terrorist task force sought to clamp down on terrorism on the eve of the new millennium.

Law enforcement officials have indicated they believe a 68-page affidavit filed in court links Patterson to a scheme to blow up two huge propane storage tanks near Sacramento. In the document, Patterson and Kiles also are described by an informant as members of a loose-knit, anti-government militia. The pair allegedly discussed manufacturing firearms.

Last Friday, a federal grand jury indicted Patterson on charges of possessing an explosive device and two counts related to the attempted manufacture of methamphetamine.

Both Patterson and Kiles were charged with conspiring to violate federal firearms laws, and Kiles also was alleged to be a felon in possession of firearms. Both men appeared before a federal magistrate Monday, when their attorneys entered the pleas and asked for jury trials.

“My client stresses his innocence in any plot to blow up anything,” Hayes Gable, Kiles’ attorney, later told reporters.

Outside the federal courthouse, Gable and Dwight Samuel, Patterson’s attorney, said they were troubled that their clients might have been arrested as a result of “Y2K hype.” They noted that neither Patterson nor Kiles has been formally charged in relation to the alleged bombing plot.

Samuel said he was surprised that Patterson has not been charged in a conspiracy to bomb the propane tanks in suburban Elk Grove, as sketched out in the affidavit. “If that’s the reality, why don’t we have a conspiracy charge alleged?” Samuel asked. He acknowledged that at a later date the government could seek to expand the charges.

The U.S. attorney’s office had no comment, but has indicated its probe is continuing. Previously, a federal prosecutor said Patterson had all the ingredients needed to make a bomb like the one that blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City.