Trial for Davidians’ Lawsuit Is Delayed

The federal judge presiding over the Branch Davidians’ wrongful death lawsuit against the government on Friday delayed the trial’s start by a month, saying court-appointed experts need more time to analyze results from a reenactment of the siege’s deadly end.

U.S. District Judge Walter Smith of Waco, Texas, moved the start date to June 19 from May 15.

Vector Data Systems, the court-appointed expert examining results from the reenactment, won’t have its report ready until May 8 at the earliest, Smith said.

The analysis initially had been expected by mid-April.

“I think all parties agree that a few more weeks were necessary in order to complete discovery and to respond if necessary to the Vector report when that comes out,” said Michael Bradford, the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Texas who is one of the government’s lead lawyers.

James Brannon, a lawyer for some of the plaintiffs, agreed that the delay makes little difference, particularly since the deadline to interview most witnesses was reached Friday.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s May 15th or June 19th,” he said.

The Vector experts are examining results from a field test designed to determine the answer to a question at the heart of the Davidians’ lawsuit, congressional inquiries and the investigation by the Waco special counsel: Did government agents fire shots at the end of the siege?

During the March 19 demonstration, weapons similar to those carried by Branch Davidians and federal agents were fired while infrared cameras mounted on two aircraft recorded the action.

Experts for the court, the government and the plaintiffs are comparing that test footage to aerial infrared videos recorded by the FBI during the actual encounter on April 19, 1993.

The plaintiffs contend that rapid-fire bursts of light captured on the FBI’s 1993 recordings represent gunfire from government positions into the Branch Davidians’ burning building in the last hour of the 51-day siege.

The government insists its agents, who were being shot at by the sect members, did not return fire. Federal officials maintain the sect members engineered their own deaths.