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THE FRANKLIN COVER-UP -- CHILD ABUSE, SATANISM, AND MURDER IN NEBRASKA |
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CHAPTER 14: COVER-UP PHASE III: THE FBI In a deposition taken October 13, 1989, John Stevens Berry, counsel for the Franklin committee, was grilling OPD Chief Wadman about the lack of OPD follow-up on the child abuse when it was first reported. In exasperation, Wadman replied: The tough thing with this, Mr. Berry, is that we have the FBI who conducts an investigation and basically says the same things that we have said. If the FBI, are they now linked to this cover-up in some way? Should the Justice Department be investigated as somehow or another assisting in this "cover-up?" Wadman said it, but in this case it's true. The Justice Department, acting through the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Omaha, emerges from the record of the Franklin investigations not so much as a party to the cover-up, but as its coordinator. Rigging grand juries, harassment of witnesses, incitement to perjury and tampering with evidence -- federal personnel were seen to apply all of those techniques in the Franklin case. *** In a case full of reported trips across state lines for sexual exploitation purposes, involving prominent persons from the national political parties, where was the Federal Bureau of Investigation? It was running interference, and worse. Maybe Senator Schmit and I got the message in its purest form, when we met with Omaha FBI head Nick O'Hara in his office in early 1989. O'Hara, who kept Wadman's picture on his desk, threatened, "You f-- with Bob Wadman, you f--- with the FBI!" There was a hint of trouble from the Bureau already in the summer of 1988, as OPD Officer Irl Carmean recollected in a memo to Deputy Chief Charlie Parker, dated December 20, 1988. A fellow officer had just reminded Carmean of a meeting back in July or August, where Lt. [Bill] Goodrich spoke of the Larry King investigation and stated that he (Goodrich) had been in contact with a federal agency that was also investigating King. To the best of Officer Berney's recollection, Lt. Goodrich said that the federal agency was concerned that our child pornography/ abuse investigation might hamper their investigation. Officer Berney told me that although he wasn't sure, it was either directly stated or he (Berney) got the impression that we were to either "slow down or back off" in our investigation so as not to impede the federal case. In 1988 and 1989, according to testimony to the Legislature's Franklin committee, the FBI claimed to be interested in Franklin money issues, but not child abuse. Dennis Carlson of the Foster Care Review Board testified to the Franklin committee, citing state Assistant Attorney General William Howland, that U.S. Attorney Tom Thalken had said "that the federal authorities were investigating Mr. King. ... But he said basically their investigation was confined to the money issues, and they were not specifically investigating allegations of child abuse." Howland's part-time investigator, Vlahoulis, told the Franklin committee that it was his impression the FBI had information on private charter flights, something Gary Caradori would confirm in a dramatic way. Moreover, as advertised in a May 12, 1990 article in the World-Herald, the FBI had been looking at Franklin since 1987, for over a year before it was closed! The FBI men could hardly have been unaware of the Franklin ambiance, not to mention the bedroom in the new addition, and the evidence shows that they were not. It was reported in the Lincoln Journal in December 1988, as summarized by Jerry Lowe for the Franklin committee, that "an ex-employee who is not identified said that when FCU shut down, FBI agents immediately began asking questions regarding child pornography, drugs and the lifestyle of Larry King." Caradori's notes of March 14, 1990 record that on the day of the federal agents' raid, he was told by a member of the accounting firm that was auditing Franklin, that a large amount of pornographic material was taken out of the credit union, including videos and photographs depicting sexual acts. I was told that if Friedrichs* or any of the other people working for the CPA firm that was contracted by the government would say anything, that they would automatically lose their jobs. That evidence was never made available to the Franklin committee, nor its existence publicly acknowledged by the FBI. All warrants concerning the raid were sealed by U.S. Magistrate Richard Kopf. *** The Douglas County grand jury proclaimed on July 23, 1990, that the allegations and evidence of Franklin-linked child abuse were a "carefully crafted hoax." Its report implied that the perpetrators were Alisha Owen, journalist Michael Casey, and the late Gary Caradori. According to testimony of Alisha Owen and her parents before the Franklin committee, the FBI had this line already in March of 1990, before the grand jury even started sitting. Alisha testified to the Franklin committee on June 11, 1990, before promulgation of the grand jury report, that her former lawyer Pam Vuchetich had come to see her in the spring, giving a proposal from the FBI that if l recanted my story then nothing would happen to me, I could possibly get out of prison and no charges would ever be brought against me. Such as, if I recanted my story, they wouldn't charge me with perjury, they wouldn't charge me with lying, they would just drop the whole thing, they would write letters to the judge asking for my sentence reduction so I could get out of prison. And if -- and in this deal I would have to say that Gary Caradori and Mike Casey came to me, they set this whole thing up, they told me what to say, we got scripts, we were promised monetary values. And I would be taken care of. On June 21, 1990, Donna and Alvin Owen told the Franklin committee about that incident. DONNA OWEN: My concern is that Pam came to us and said that the FBI wanted Alisha to say this, to drop it. SENATOR LYNCH: You testified that your husband was there? ALVIN OWEN: Sitting in the living room, I remember. SENATOR LYNCH: You heard her say that? ... Did she tell you who in the FBI made that deal, made that offer to her? DONNA OWEN: Mickey Mott. ... SENATOR LYNCH: Was Mickey Mott -- was there anybody else with this Mickey Mott? DONNA OWEN: He works closely with Rick Culver and John Pankonon. SENATOR LYNCH: Okay. Well, for the record, do you remember the date at which time she told you about the FBI deal when your husband was present? DONNA OWEN: This would have been on Tuesday, I believe. If Tuesday is April 25, then it would have been Tuesday, April 25, 1990. It would have all -- that was brought up then, but it was also brought up earlier, in March. Because at that time, I called Senator Labedz and I said, do you realize that this is what is happening and I want to tell you this because I think when all is said and done it's not going to just be this man Mike Casey, they are going to say that Gary Caradori was in on it and that members of the legislative committee were in on it. And she was very concerned and she immediately went to get Senator Schmit and I talked with him about it also. And that would have been in March. SENATOR SCHMIT: I recall that. *** In order for the FBI to claim that all of the Franklin committee's evidence was a hoax, they had to break one or more of the witnesses Caradori had taped. Troy Boner and Danny King recanted; what happened with Troy shows the hand of the FBI. On the evening of July 11, 1990, the day her husband crashed to his death, Sandie Caradori received several phone calls from Troy Boner. She wrote up her notes on the calls: I need to preface this writing by explaining that in the course of the Franklin Credit Union investigation, many calls were received at our home from Troy Boner. I was familiar with the individual's voice and can be 100% assured that I did, in fact, receive the telephone calls from him. In the early evening of Wednesday, July 11, 1990, several telephone calls were received at our home by an individual identifying himself as "Troy." Different individuals answered the telephone and took the message from him. I was either talking to other visitors at our home or in no shape to come to the telephone. In any event, if necessary I can supply names of the parties who can attest to the fact that a "Troy" called for me during that evening. Later in the evening, Troy again called and I was able to go the telephone. It should be noted that I did not initiate the call, nor did I know what, if anything, he wanted to speak to me about. The following is a synopsis of the conversation: SC: This is Sandie Caradori. ... Troy, what do you want to say? TB: First, you have to be careful. SC: Troy, that is the least of my worries. How are you? TB: I am so sorry. I am so sorry. He shouldn't have died. SC: What are you saying Troy? What are you trying to tell me. TB: Gary wasn't lying. He didn't tell me what to say. What I told him was the truth. (He spoke rapidly as if fighting back tears.) They made me take it back. They threatened me. SC: Troy, you should tell someone. ... Do you want me to call Senator Schmit? You need to come out with the truth once and for all. Troy, what has happened? TB: You don't understand, thy threatened me. They made me take it back. I was so scared. (At this point I felt I needed someone else to hear this so I asked Troy to tell what he had just told me to our son, Sean.) SC: Troy, I want you to talk to Sean, Gary's 16-year old son. Please tell him, alright? TB: Yeah, sure. SEAN: Yeah, man what do you want? I, along with the ten to 15 other people in our kitchen/ family room heard Sean's portion of the conversation as follows: SEAN: Okay buddy, you need to do it for my Dad, man. Okay ... Okay ... I got back on the telephone and told him I would try to contact Senator Schmit or Karen [Ormiston]. He said he'd be at [phone number] but only for a short time. He said he was going to be "on the move" or something to that effect. He further stated, "I'll go to anyone who'll listen. I'll go without my lawyer. I'm gonna come clean." He then asked if I would talk with his mother. She wanted to talk. I said, "Of course." Troy's mother's voice was familiar. She had called our house several times for Gary. ... Troy's mother related the following: MRS. BONER: Mrs. Caradori, I am so sorry. I'm so sorry. This is such a tragedy. I knew something happened to Troy. He got so scared just before he changed his story. They were threatening him. I knew he shouldn't have backed away from the truth. ... Troy then got back on the telephone and I repeatedly asked that he would promise me that he would come through for me, for Gary, and for A.J. He said, "I promise ... tomorrow. ... To anyone who will listen ... the FBI, the news -- anyone." The next day I did not hear anything on the television or the radio and I really felt that Troy had probably backed away. That evening he called me again. He said, "Sandie, I tried, I tried. I went to Mickey Mott and (FBI agents). They laughed at me. They said they spent too much time and money on this case now for me to change my story. I also went to Frank Brown [Channel 7 TV] but he said he didn't want to take a statement because of my Grand Jury testimony." *** The next day, Sandie Caradori arrived at the offices of her husband's firm for the first time since his death, to find two FBI agents already there, with a subpoena for all of Caradori's records. Mrs. Caradori recalled: I was extremely upset because the timing certainly left much to be desired. I opened the closed door and noted two FBI agents, Karen Ormiston, and our security director, Joe Hebenstreit. They were all seated in the office. I said, "I don't think I need to introduce myself. What are you doing here? I can't believe this." The smaller individual stammered a bit and looked at Karen and said, "Who ... who is this?" "She's Gary's widow." He then halfway stood up and extended his hand as if to shake mine and expressed his/their sympathy. The whole ordeal was extremely unprofessional. He then looked over his shoulder at the other agent, gave him a smirk, and shook his head. He identified himself as Mickey Mott .... I then asked them directly whether Troy Boner had tried to speak with them on the previous day. Mr. Mott said, "I can't confirm or deny that." I indicated that I did deserve an answer. Mr. Mott then said, "Yeah, he came to the office but we can't waste our time with him. He has lost all credibility." Troy Boner did attempt to come clean. He went not only to the FBI office, but to Senator Schmit's -- and then pretended he had not. The World-Herald reported July 27, 1990: State Senators Loran Schmit of Bellwood and Bernice Labedz of Omaha said Troy Boner told blatant lies when he said he did not come to Schmit's office last week and when he said he didn't recant what he told a Douglas County grand jury Schmit said at least eight people were in his office last week when Boner, in essence, recanted his recantation and said that what he had originally told Caradori was the truth. Six of the eight appeared at a press conference Thursday, including four -- Schmit, Sen. Labedz, Caradori associate R.J. Nebe and Jody Gittins, an attorney who works in Schmit's office -- who said they heard Boner's comments directly. ... The six at the press conference Thursday said Boner was in Schmit's office both July 16 and July 17, the day of Caradori's funeral. Under pressure, Boner reasserted that what he told Gary Caradori was not true. His new lawyer, Marc Delman, insisted that his client had lied to Caradori. A specialist in child abuse cases when he worked in the Douglas County Attorney's Office, Delman was now better known for defending pornographers. Since Boner was penniless, many people in Omaha wondered if Alan Baer or another patron had given him the money to hire Delman. *** On Sept. 25, 1990, a federal grand jury returned findings almost identical to those of the Douglas County jury: There is no credible evidence for us to believe that funds or individuals connected with the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union were involved in the sexual exploitation of minors, the interstate transportation of minors, the interstate transportation of minors for sexual purposes or the trafficking in controlled substances. All of the big shots named in the Caradori investigation were cleared: There is no credible evidence for us to believe that any prominent individuals in the Omaha community were involved in any ring of organized activity to sexually exploit minors, transport minors in interstate commerce for sexual purposes, or to traffic in controlled substances. Alisha Owen was indicted again, on eight counts of perjury. The FBI, as Boner said, had threatened Boner into recanting his videotaped statement, which enabled the Douglas jury to return its "carefully crafted hoax" verdict, and set the pattern for the federal grand jury. Federal officials in charge of the latter, in particular Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Thalken, attempted to terrorize Alisha Owen into recanting as well. In testimony to the Franklin committee on June 21, 1990, Owen told about her experience with the federal grand jury, in an exchange with committee counsel. BERRY: Now, I do not want to know what questions were asked and what answers you gave. But you told me earlier that your life hasn't been easy and the worst three days of your life were in front of the county grand jury. Was the federal grand jury a more pleasant experience or -- OWEN: Well, now I have to clarify that statement. No longer -- the worst three days of my life were not in front of the county grand jury but they were in front of the federal grand jury. Imagine if you were woken up at 5:00 in the morning, told to take a shower and get dressed. You were not told where you were going. I mean, if somebody came to your home at 5:00, did not tell you where you were going, they had the authority to drag you out of bed. After you got dressed you were then taken outside your home and wrapped in chains and driven two hours to another city, all -- you were still not told where you are going and what is actually happening. Officially you are not told. Then once you get to this other city, you're put into an actual cage. I mean, I have seen kennels look nicer than where I was held. And five minutes before 9:00, you are given a subpoena telling you that you have to testify at 9:00 in front of a grand jury. Now, that -- I mean that in itself is suspect. Okay. Especially if you are the witness. I might be able to understand it if you are the perpetrator. ... I am in a room and it's a cage, okay, it's -- it really is a cage like a zoo cage. The whole front is just a cage. And there is a hallway and there is -- there is an open door so I can hear what's going on in the hallway because it's just a cage, there is no sound barrier. I heard Mr. Thalken repeatedly and repeatedly in a very disrespectful -- what I consider dis -- I wouldn't talk to anybody like that, disrespectful tone, saying things repeatedly, over and over, if she gets up there and she doesn't tell the truth I'm going to charge her with perjury. Over and over and over and over again. I have not heard the word perjury so many times in my entire life than that day. ... He was saying this to my attorney, saying I'm going to put her on the stand and if she doesn't, you know, if she doesn't tell the truth I'm going to charge her with perjury. Alisha's attorney Henry Rosenthal confirmed her account: Well, I don't know Tom Thalken. ... He came at me like a little grizzly bear. ... And he had a finger about two inches from my nose and kept yelling about perjury. And I didn't even know what he was talking about. Over and over about this and that and this and that. I said, let me tell you, if you think you have got any evidence of perjury when she's done, please charge her, just please do that. And that's -- every time there was a recess, yelling about perjury ... This was before the evidence even started. Long before Thalken's behavior in dealing with Owen, his name had surfaced in Gary Caradori's investigation, as an alleged pedophile who frequented adult book stores in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Moreover, a confidential informant told Caradori, that Thalken was key to the cover-up in progress. In a February 22, 1990 report, Caradori transcribed an interview with this confidential informant. GC: Are the federal people still putting me down, have you heard? I mean they want me off this case. CI: Well, they don't want anybody to get too close to it. ... This thing is way bigger than Nebraska. ... You get one of those dominoes to fall I think it could reach to the White House and back so fast. That's why it's just almost hopeless. GC: What have you heard that they're doing [sic] to do to try to squash this case? CI: Well, their ace in the hole is the assistant prosecutor. GC: Thalken. CI: Yeah. And the term was a year ago, finger in the dike. *** Rosenthal was Alisha' s second lawyer. He succeeded Pamela Vuchetich, who had conveyed to Alisha the FBI's offer of a deal, from Vuchetich's friend Mickey Mott. In her Franklin committee testimony of June 11, 1990, Owen reported another incident involving Vuchetich and the FBI, which appeared to be an attempt to craft some evidence of the "carefully crafted hoax": They had Troy call me in the beginning of March. He called me in the afternoon and I got on the phone. ... Pam had told me that Troy had recanted his statement about Danny. She never told me he recanted his statement about me. And you know, maybe I was naive, maybe I was just dumb, but I never once thought he could do that because, I mean, I had all this evidence, you know, and I mean, I'm the one that -- you know, that told them about Troy and others. It never dawned on me that he would ever do that, recant about Danny. So we -- I got on the phone and I -- one of the first things I asked him was, why are you doing this to Danny, he's one of your best friends, how could you do this, what are you doing? And he said, something, Alisha, I'm scared. And his voice -- the FBI has this tape. His voice is just really scared. And I know Troy sleeps until 4:00 or 5:00 at night, so I started to think oh, my God, he's in Omaha for a week, it's 3:00, 2:30 in the afternoon, somebody must be at his house making him do this. And I thought this must be a taped phone conversation. I was -- I was literally scared. I thought either they sat down a lot of money in front of him or else somebody has got a gun to his head making him say this. I mean, I never thought -- it never dawned on me the FBI would be so, you know, devious as to try and do something like that. So I asked him, why are you doing this? And he -- and he said, Alisha, I'm scared, I don't know what to do, tell me what to do. And then he asked me, quote, unquote, do you think we're going to get any money? And I -- I stopped for a second and I said, I don't give a damn about any money, you know, just tell the truth. That's what I said, quote, unquote. Excuse my French. But I just -- just tell the truth. He said, what should I do? And I said, just tell the truth. And he kept trying to make these leading statements, Alisha, what should I do? And that's when I realized at that point in time that whoever was listening was probably law enforcement, trying to do entrapping statements. ... And after I got off the phone, I tried to get ahold of Pam. Well, Pam is sitting down in the FBI's office with them making that call. Tried to get hold of Pam, Pam is not around. So I was upset enough and I was worried enough that possibly somebody was sitting there with a gun that I called Gary. And I thought, okay, if anybody is going to be able to do anything or know anything, Gary will know or he'll be able to find out. I called Gary. And Gary said, Alisha, Troy is sitting down at the FBl's office right now. So okay, I knew that the FBI was the one that prompted him to that call. ... So Gary told me that it was the FBI. And Gary said to me at that time, Alisha, maybe you should start wondering why your attorney is spending so much time with the FBI. Against Alisha Owen's specific instructions, she reported, Vuchetich turned over to the FBI a file that Alisha maintained on acquaintances from her past. Vuchetich had suggested she assemble this information. In it were the names of some people, like former boyfriends, who could be expected to be bitter toward her. Alisha Owen told the Franklin committee, that the FBI also directly advised her to tell a lie -- to say that she had lied on the videotapes. SENATOR SCHMIT: In other words, they advised you to say that you had lied on the tapes? ALISHA OWEN: Uh-huh. SENATOR LABEDZ: The FBI? OWEN: The FBI had advised me that I should say that not everything on the tapes is true, just a blanket statement, and say not everything on the tapes is true, and that I should forget all about the tapes because they can come back to hurt me. SCHMIT: I want to interrupt there because that is almost an identical statement that we heard in the press made by Troy, that not everything on the tapes was true. OWEN: That's what they told me to say. ... And there were times when they tried to get me to say that Gary Caradori was withholding evidence from them, there were times when they -- they basically really rammed Gary into the ground. Caradori wrote in his daily notes of April 20, 1990: At approximately 1415, this writer received a telephone call from Alisha Owen. She talked about the FBI hinting to her that if she changed her story that they would insure that they would "go after" this writer and Mike Casey for "fabricating" an investigation. She informed me that she had not fabricated any part of any story and that she was sticking to the story she told me, and that she wished me well. For my own protection, I tape recorded the telephone conversation which lasted approximately 30 minutes. According to an associate of Caradori, Franklin committee counsel John Stevens Berry alerted Caradori that he should get a lawyer, since he would likely be indicted. *** Alisha was not the only witness the FBI was reported to have harassed or told to lie. At a Franklin committee session on June 22, 1990, Senator Labedz related her discussion with former Franklin employee Noel Seltzer: One of the most important things that I thought he told me was the fact that when they first went into the investigation of Larry King, he was talked to by the FBI and he told them mostly everything that he told me about the sexual abuse and so forth. And then he said he was told by the FBI, we're going to advise you it's best for you that you keep your mouth shut. And I said, say that again, and he repeated it so I could write it down. Gary Caradori interviewed a victim-witness named Terry Muller*. In his daily report of Apri1 20, 1990, Caradori wrote: Further this writer received a telephone call from Sue Tompkins*, sister of Terry Muller. Briefly, Sue told this writer that the FBI and a member of the State Patrol were harassing her brother and trying to get him to talk about things that he just didn't know about. She stated that her brother is extremely scared. He wants to tell the truth, however, he felt extremely uncomfortable with the FBI and State Patrol investigators. She stated that a Phillips and FBI Agent Coulter were very harsh with her brother. On May 4, 1990, Caradori added: Following this meeting, this writer placed a telephone call to Sue Tompkins, who is the sister of Terry Muller. She advisedme that Terry had retained an attorney to protect him from the FBI. I told her that I wished him well and hoped that everything worked out for him. Caradori's investigative notes for February 19, 1990 record his talk with Joanie Gregory, a Department of Social Services social worker who screened families applying for foster care licenses: Approximately 2.5 years ago she was inspecting the home of Jarrett and Barbara Webb for a renewal of their license. She felt the environment was not right and wrote a letter to DSS in Lincoln. She received no response. After a couple of months, she wrote a letter to the Omaha Police Department regarding this same situation with the Webbs. She was then contacted by the FBI. In the meantime she had tried to do some research on her own, but evidently files were missing. To this writer's knowledge, a letter was not written to the FBI. The FBI informed Joanie Gregory that it would probably be in her best interests if she "forgot this information." Caradori recorded in his notes for December 1, 1989: At approximately 4:00 PM Senator Schmit arrived at [committee counsel] Steve Berry's office, during which time he advised me that within the last 48 hours the FBI were scrutinizing several of his businesses such as his gambling machines in southeastern Nebraska and other related matters. On his own bitter experience with the Bureau, Caradori commented to the Franklin committee, on June 22, 1990. CARADORI: I think the [Douglas Co.] grand jury is being misfed information. SEN. LYNCH: By who, can you tell? CARADORI: I think they are being misled by the influence of the State Patrol investigator and various people in the FBI. BERRY: Do you think the FBI and the State Patrol are deliberately misleading the grand jury? CARADORI: I do, but I can't -- you know, I have nothing to base it on. You know, the people ... in law enforcement say, we checked every lead you got, every lead that you have and it's nothing. And it's like, you know, all the work that you have done is not worth a damn. ... [T]he most frustrating thing in this whole case, and no sense dwelling on it, has been that you produce a work product, not every lead is going to be in gold but you produce a work product and then one of the aspects of your investigation is the State Patrol and right away it goes to them, goes to the FBI and -- and then they just tear you apart. And yeah, it's been really frustrating. ... SEN. LYNCH: So the impression that we talked about being left with the grand jury wasn't an impression that this committee or witnesses that we had or any staff in addition to you, our counsel, misled us with information, but the fact that information we developed that we shared with the FBI and the police department was in fact used by them to -- CARADORI: Work against us. SEN. LYNCH: Discredit us. CARADORI: I go on record and say I -- I didn't want to give them our data. ... BERRY: Mr. Creager and I, and following our advice the chairman and the committee members, have instructed you that everything you have must be turned over to both the grand juries, federal and county, you feel that sometimes your investigative effort has been sabotaged, is that -- is that the source of your frustration? CARADORI: That's right. The legislative investigator found that the FBI interfered with material even before he got to it. One afternoon in late 1989, Caradori and Karen Ormiston spent several hours at YNR Airlines in Sioux City, Iowa, photocopying flight manifests of Larry King's charter flights. At other airlines, staffers had already confirmed to Caradori, that King took underage boys and girls with him on charter flights. At YNR, children's names were listed for the flights -- proof that King was transporting children around the country as the Webb girls, Alisha Owen, Paul Bonacci, and others had charged. The owner of YNR made a phone call, and prevented Caradori from leaving with the records, some of which had yellow FBI tabs attached to them. Since the Franklin committee had only limited, in-state subpoena power, Caradori requested the NCUA to subpoena the records, turn them over to him, and not mention this to the FBI. NCUA general counsel Robert Fenner agreed. Caradori never got the records, but someone else apparently did. Caradori told a friend, that he saw some of the FBI stickers from YNR, in a notebook carried by FBI agent Mickey Mott. The FBI maintained that there was no proof whatsoever that King had transported children; the Douglas County grand jury lamented, that it was a pity charter companies did not keep flight manifests, so no trips could be verified. In a September 25, 1990 letter to Senator Schmit, Ormiston summed up the FBI's activities: There must be some kind of provision which allows the State of Nebraska to retain its information so that there is not a probable cover-up when this stuff is turned over to the federal level. It is my sincere hope that the federal agencies cannot just walk all over the state agencies, especially since we have given them everything we have yet we have been allowed to see nothing that they have. This in itself has not only prolonged the investigation, but it has also been a major factor in that the FBI does seem to get to our leads since they do have a lot of manpower. I do feel that the leads turned over to the FBI have effectively been stonewalled as it pertains to this investigation. *** The FBI's eagerness to discredit the victim-witnesses may be based on more than just an institutional commitment to protect former Omaha FBI chief Nick O'Hara's friend Chief Wadman, or Assistant U.S. Attorney Thalken, or higher-ups in Washington. A look at life inside the Bureau, including its Omaha branch, shows why. In August 1990, black FBI agent Donald Rochon settled his suit against the FBI for racial discrimination. A highly decorated veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, Rochon joined the FBI in the early 1980s. According to the settlement, Rochon, who worked in the Omaha FBI office in 1983 and 1984, will receive more than $1 million over his lifetime, and have his $500,000 in legal expenses paid. In his suit, Rochon charged Omaha FBI personnel with sexual perversion. Some of the details are recorded in a "Motion of the [U.S.] Attorney General for Summary Judgment as to Plaintiff's [Rochon] 'Chicago Claims,'" filed on September 13, 1989 in Washington, D.C. After his Omaha assignment, Rochon had moved to Chicago, where the harassment continued. Subhead II of that motion, "The Sexual Deviance Complaint and Investigation," reads in part: In response to his telephonic complaint, a signed sworn statement was taken from Rochon on July 3, 1984. In his statement, Rochon described a series of acts or events which he alleged were evidence of sexual deviance by SA [Special Agent] Dillon and other SAs assigned to the Omaha office. Specifically, Rochon alleged that he had "personally observed" Dillon "French kissing" SA Agent Terry J. Bohle, a male, at a going-away party for SA Bohle, and that he likewise had "personally witnessed" Dillon "exposing himself in the Omaha office during a regular work day to numerous Omaha employees, both male and female." In addition, Rochon said that he had heard reports that Dillon had allowed Boble to urinate into his mouth and to "urinate into a beer bottle, [from] which he subsequently drank;" and that Dillon had been observed "picking out the deodorant block in [the] men's urinal and placing this block in his mouth." Rochon further alleged that Dillon appeared preoccupied with homosexual sex, kept homosexual pornography at his desk, and had frequently spoken in the office of homosexual acts. Another agent backed up Rochon's account of Dillon's allowing Bohle to urinate into his mouth. In an official response, Dillon protested that SA Bohle only "accidentally" did urinate on him on one occasion. He added that he, Dillon, had not exposed his penis in the office, as Rochon charged, but merely his buttocks. The Bureau defended Dillon's possession of pornographic homosexual literature, as necessary for his investigation of homosexual prostitution. But Rochon's claims of discrimination and harassment were so well substantiated, that the FBI chose to settle. In October 1983, the FBI announced it had investigated a male prostitution ring in Omaha. Apparently one of the agents on the case was none other than SA Dillon. U.S. Attorney Ron Lahners commented privately at the time, "This thing is so big and involves so many prominent people around this state." The investigation was expected to bring high-level indictments, but never did. One Nebraska insider said recently, "There is no doubt that the pedophile networks investigated in 1983 overlapped those of Larry King; in fact King himself was probably looked at at that time." Special agent Dillon, who was investigating homosexual prostitution in those years, was "real close to some priests at Boys Town," according to a law enforcement source who knew Dillon then. Years later, Caradori received allegations that some priests associated with Boys Town, in particular Father Pat Henry and Father Fiala, were pedophiles; Father Henry was sent to Bolivia when child abuse scandals surfaced at Boys Town in the mid-1980s. Donald Rochon was a successful agent, part of whose responsibility while in Omaha was to find missing children. He once was commended for finding a kidnapped girl within one day of beginning work on the case. Inevitably, as a black agent, he would have developed ties in the black community in north Omaha, where Larry King's pedophilia was notorious. Many of the boys King used as prostitutes were black, and were recruited from Boys Town, where the alleged pervert SA Dillon seemed to have friends. Would it have been just a matter of time until Rochon found himself investigating SA Dillon, and others in Dillon's clique? One thing was established for certain by Rochon's court documents: Dillon was the ringleader of the harassment operation which drove Rochon from Omaha, and most of the rest of the Omaha FBI office covered up for Dillon.
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