Agent sues ATF officials, bureau in Koresh cult raid
He says agency made him scapegoat to hide its errors

02/25/95

By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning News

The undercover agent in the 1993 Branch Davidian raid sued raid commanders and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on Friday, charging that ATF officials falsely blamed him to conceal their errors in the failed operation.

ATF Agent Robert Rodriguez of San Antonio filed suit in U.S. District Court in Waco alleging that other ATF officials ranging from raid commanders to former ATF Director Stephen Higgins violated his privacy and civil rights, defamed him and conspired to make him a scapegoat.

It is the first time that any agent involved in the Branch Davidian raid and standoff has filed suit against government agencies or officials seeking compensation for official wrongdoing in the tragedy.

"He was wronged and has a compelling story, and we hope the law will recognize it," said Agent Rodriguez's lawyer, Dicky Grigg of Austin. "He was just thrown to the wolves because of a couple of people who wanted a cover-up."

Agent Rodriguez declined to comment.

ATF spokesman Jack Killorin in Washington said the agency and the six current ATF officials named as defendants in the lawsuit could not comment. Mr. Higgins and two other high-ranking ATF officials who left the agency in the wake of the Branch Davidian incident declined to comment or could not be reached for comment.

Agent Rodriguez infiltrated the Branch Davidian compound as part of an investigation of alleged firearms violations by the Waco-area sect. On Feb. 28, 1993, he went into the compound several hours before ATF agents planned to raid it and learned that sect leader David Koresh had been tipped off to the federal operation.

He warned Chuck Sarabyn, a raid assistant commander, that the raid's secrecy had been compromised and that Mr. Koresh knew the bureau was coming, but Mr. Sarabyn and raid commander Phil Chojnacki decided to execute the operation anyway.

When the agents arrived, a 45-minute gunbattle erupted, leaving four agents dead and 20 wounded. Six sect members also were mortally wounded or killed in the firefight. After a 51-day siege, Mr. Koresh and more than 70 followers died amid a compound fire that began just after FBI agents began ramming the compound with tanks and injecting tear gas.

The lawsuit alleges that the raid commanders and ATF officials Ted Royster and Jim Cavanaugh lied about what happened to hide their errors in handling the raid.

At the time, Mr. Royster and Mr. Cavanaugh were chief and assistant chief of ATF's Dallas division.

Despite findings by an ATF review team and Texas Rangers that officials and raid commanders were lying, the lawsuit alleges, ATF officials tried to make it appear "to the public and to other agents that Rodriguez had not performed his job properly, that he had failed to advise them of Koresh's knowledge and that he was to blame for the failure of the raid."

The suit also names a psychologist hired by ATF to counsel agents involved in the raid. It alleges that he violated Agent Rodriguez's privacy rights and gave false information to ATF officials about the undercover agent. The psychologist, Roger M. Solomon of Gardner, Mass., could not be reached for comment Friday.

Mr. Sarabyn and Mr. Chojnacki and three retired ATF officials named in the suit were criticized in a U.S. Treasury review of the incident for misleading the public and government officials and for trying to cover up reasons for the raid's failure. The review concluded that the two commanders lied to investigators and tried unfairly to scapegoat Agent Rodriguez. The commanders were fired last year but were reinstated to civilian ATF jobs after appealing their dismissals.

Agent Rodriguez also is among about 75 agents who have filed suit against the Waco newspaper and a local television station in connection with the failed raid. The suits allege that reporters from the Waco media outlets tipped sect members to the operation and thus are responsible for the ensuing deaths and injuries of ATF agents.

The newspaper and the television station have denied wrongdoing.

On Thursday, Mr. Sarabyn and Mr. Chojnacki filed complaints in U.S. District Court in Waco seeking to join the agents' lawsuits against the media.