Page 95 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2024 - Online Magazine

prosecute was the Branch Davidian case. He was
on-site April 19, 1993, when the compound was
destroyed by fire.

John has a vivid memory of the morning after the
fire. It was about 5:30 a.m., and he and several agents
were standing on the five concrete steps leading to
the front door that did not burn. They were watching
the smoldering remnants of the fire, trying to absorb
In February 1976, he what happened. Hand grenades and ammunition
graduated from Baylor were still cooking off, and they heard popping
Law School. As a senior law student, he worked every now and then. Suddenly, right beside him,
as an investigator in the district attorney's office an explosion knocked him off the steps. The whole
in Bell County (Temple). At that time, a senior law side of his arm felt warm and wet. He first thought
student could litigate misdemeanor cases under the it must have been a grenade, and what he felt was
supervision of a licensed lawyer. He graduated on a blood. An FBI agent ran to the scene and started
Saturday in May 1978 and was sworn into the bar the laughing. John asked,
next Wednesday. The next Monday, he was picking a “What is so funny?” The
jury for a misdemeanor case he handled as a senior. agent replied, “Green
He stayed in Bell County until 1990, then joined the beans!” A gallon can of
Department of Justice as a federal prosecutor in Waco. green beans had blown
up, and all the wet goo
As a federal prosecutor, John litigated a plethora on his arm was juice
of cases, from murder and illegal immigrants to and beans. “That was
many drug cases. The most notorious case he helped the only funny thing

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