Waco Hearings Open; Girl Tells of Forced Sex

A teen-age girl’s gripping account Wednesday of being forced at age 10 to have sex in a hotel room with Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh effectively muted criticism of federal law enforcement agents on the first day of congressional hearings into the tragic 1993 siege of the cult’s compound near Waco, Tex.

Speaking in a soft yet determined voice, Kiri Jewell, now 14, recalled that she was about 7 when Koresh first notified her on a Southern California recreational outing that she would become one of his wives. Jewell said that she was taught how to place a gun inside her mouth to commit suicide.

Her testimony before a silent, jam-packed committee room on Capitol Hill instantly transformed a boisterous, rude proceeding filled with partisan bickering. Republicans, who had scheduled eight days of hearings to attack the government’s decision to raid the Davidian compound in assaults that led to the deaths of more than 80 sect members and four federal agents, were stunned by Jewell’s allegations against Koresh.

Democratic leaders, who earlier protested that the proceedings were politically tainted by the “surreptitious” involvement of the National Rifle Assn. in the preparation of testimony and witnesses, had called Jewell to testify.

“The Republicans made their own bed, equating David Koresh with federal law enforcement,” said a clearly satisfied Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), ranking minority member of the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime. “And now they have to lay in it.”

Republicans were frustrated by Jewell’s testimony. They had hoped to focus the day’s attention on the shortcomings of a legal affidavit used by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to obtain a warrant to search the Davidian complex for unlawful firearms and explosives. Among the criticisms raised during testimony was a listing in the affidavit of child abuse allegations--a crime outside the jurisdiction of the ATF.

“This is a sympathetic witness to an issue that has nothing to do with this hearing,” said Rep. Steven H. Schiff (R-N.M.), who conceded in an interview that a disproportionate amount of attention had been drawn away from law enforcement’s performance of its duties at Waco. He added: “So details about under-age sex are going to get more attention than a faulty search warrant.”

Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) called the emphasis placed on child abuse allegations “a major distraction.”

The hearing kicked off with a government prosecutor asserting that Koresh had scripted an apocalyptic theology that directly led to the deaths of sect members and government agents.

But the two House subcommittees jointly conducting the hearings also heard testimony that the government could have avoided a violent confrontation by accepting Koresh’s invitation to inspect weapons at his Mount Carmel Center or by arresting him on at least three separate occasions when he left the compound in the weeks leading up to the initial raid on Feb. 28, 1993, that prompted the longest and deadliest standoff in U.S. law enforcement history.

The start of the hearings that will examine the conduct of the ATF, FBI and Justice Department during the 51-day siege erupted in bitter partisan bickering when Democrats claimed they had evidence that the NRA had paid explosive experts conducting research for the joint committee and that NRA lawyers were selected to testify without revealing their affiliation with the pro-gun lobby. In addition, a potential witness earlier had disclosed that she was interviewed by an NRA employee who identified herself as a committee staff member.

“This hearing is not for the American people,” Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said in a prepared statement. “It is by, for and about the National Rifle Assn. This hearing is an attempt to repeal the assault weapons ban by tearing down the agencies that enforce that ban.”

Republican leaders of the joint committee--composed of the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime and the Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee on national security, international affairs and criminal justice--refused a request by Democrats to fully investigate the NRA’s role in the hearings.

More than two years after the Davidian complex burned to the ground, much remains in doubt about the events leading up to the siege.

The hearings are expected to focus on central questions such as:

* Why did ATF agents decline Koresh’s offer to search the premises of the Davidian compound during their investigation into weapons violations?

* Did the ATF intentionally mislead the U.S. Army when it claimed that the Davidian complex contained a drug lab so that it could obtain the use of military equipment and personnel?

* Did ATF agents in helicopters fire on the Davidian complex?

* Why did the FBI cease to engage in good-faith negotiations with Koresh during the standoff?

* Did FBI officials mislead Atty. Gen. Janet Reno in seeking her approval to launch a tear gas assault on the residence?

* Why did the FBI abandon its plan to gradually insert tear gas over a two-day period?

* And finally, what steps have been taken to prevent a similar tragedy from occurring?

About 90 witnesses are scheduled to testify. Among the 18 witnesses who appeared before the joint committee Wednesday were ATF agents who planned and executed the failed raid on the Branch Davidian compound and two former Davidians.

The day’s most dramatic testimony came from Jewell, whose mother died during the April 19, 1993, FBI assault on the Davidian compound. Calmly reading from a prepared statement as her father, David, gently stroked her back, Jewell said that she and her mother, Sherri, first lived with Koresh in the late 1980s in a two-bedroom house in San Bernardino. She also resided with sect members in houses in Pomona and LaVerne before moving to Mount Carmel Center near Waco.

She recounted that Koresh spanked her twice, though she knew that he spanked other children when they were babies and had them spanked by women. Once, when she was 8 years old, Jewell said, Koresh spanked her after she said that she was going on a diet.

“He used the big wooden boat oar they used for adults, not the wooden spoon they called the ‘little helper’ ,” she said. Her second spanking was for violating Koresh’s teaching by buying candy from a vending machine.

When Jewell was 7, Koresh notified her during a motorcycle trip to Mt. Baldy in the San Bernardino mountains that she would be among his chosen women.

“On that trip, he took me for a ride down a mountain ski trail on the chairlift,” Jewell said. “There wasn’t any snow but it seemed like we could see the whole world. That was when David said personally to me that one day I would be one of his wives.”

Her description of sex with Koresh was so graphic that lawmakers felt compelled to warn television viewers. Jewell testified that Koresh had intercourse with her in 1991 when she was 10. She said the incident took place in a Dallas area motel room while her mother and a friend were out shopping.

“I took a shower. Then I was brushing my hair, sitting in the chair and David told me to come to sit down by him in the bed . . . ,” Jewell said. “He kissed me. I just sat there, but then he laid me down.”

Afterward, Jewell said, Koresh “read to me from the ‘Song of Solomon.’ ”

She testified that the Davidians fully expected during the Waco siege that they would “be killed by the feds.” They also prepared for suicide. “It was also accepted that the best way to shoot yourself . . . was to put the gun into your mouth back to the soft spot above your throat before pulling the trigger.”

Jewell left the Davidians in 1992 when her father won a court order prohibiting Koresh and her mother from contacting her.

Some witnesses and Republican members of the joint committee criticized ATF agents for including allegations of child molestation and drug use in an affidavit seeking to document weapons violations against Koresh.