FORMER DEPUTY UNITED STATES MARSHAL CHARGED
WITH PERJURY AND FALSE STATEMENTS

DENVER, COLORADO -- The Department of Justice announced that Benny Bailey of Denver, Colorado, formerly a Deputy United States Marshal for the District of Colorado, was indicted today by a federal grand jury in a two-count indictment charging him with perjury and false statements. If convicted, Bailey faces on each count up to five years in prison and a fine of not more than $250,000.

According to the indictment, Bailey helped supervise the jury in the 1997 trial of Timothy McVeigh, who had been charged with bombing the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. After the McVeigh trial concluded in June, 1997, Bailey became involved in an intimate relationship with an alternate juror from the trial. In 1998 the trial court and, subsequently, defense counsel for McVeigh, received anonymous facsimiles alleging that Bailey and the alternate juror had an intimate relationship during the McVeigh trial and that Bailey attempted to influence the outcome of the trial by persuading this juror of McVeigh's guilt. As a result of these anonymous facsimiles, the U.S. Marshals Service and the McVeigh trial judge investigated whether or not any improprieties had occurred between Bailey and any of the McVeigh jurors.

In Count One, the indictment charges that Bailey lied to his supervisor, the United States Marshal for the District of Colorado, when he falsely denied having had an intimate relationship with any McVeigh juror at any time. In Count Two of the indictment, Bailey is charged with committing perjury when, during a hearing conducted by the trial judge, Bailey lied under oath about his contacts with the alternate juror in question.

The investigation, conducted by the Office of the Inspector General, found no evidence of improper contacts with the McVeigh jury during either the trial or jury deliberations. Rather the indictment charges Bailey with lying about a relationship with an alternate juror after the trial. The juror did not deliberate or participate in the verdict in any way. The full results of this investigation were provided to the Court, as well as to McVeigh and his counsel. Prior to McVeigh's execution, after reviewing these results, the Court determined that there were no grounds for concluding that the verdict in the McVeigh case had been improperly influenced or affected.

The case was investigated by the Office of the Inspector General, and is being prosecuted by the Public Integrity Section of the United States Department of Justice.

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