FBI Probes Slant Allegations Washington, September 14, 1995 (AP) -- The FBI says it has reviewed more than 250 cases involving work done by its crime lab after one of its agents alleged that his colleagues slanted their testimony and fabricated evidence to help prosecutors in high-profile cases. "To date, no evidence tampering, evidence fabrication or failure to report exculpatory evidence have been found," the FBI said in a statement Wednesday. "Any findings of such misconduct will result in tough and swift action by the FBI." Special Agent Frederic Whitehurst, who made the allegations and was interviewed Wednesday night on ABC-TV's "Primetime Live" program, labeled the FBI statement "garbage." "I am obviously disagreeing with my superiors in this matter. This report is garbage. ... It's garbage. I personally know about the review of those 250 cases," Whitehurst said. Whitehurst said he was under orders not to discuss specific cases. Defense lawyers want to call Whitehurst as a witness at the O.J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles because he has claimed that FBI agent Roger Martz, who gave testimony damaging to Simpson, has slanted evidence in testimony in other cases. Asked if there had been evidence tampering at the FBI lab, Whitehurst told ABC, "Yes, I believe there has been evidence tampering." He said he would testify at the Simpson trial "if the FBI orders me to go." Martz could not be reached for comment. There was no answer at the office phones either Martz or Whitehurst late Wednesday. Their home phone numbers could not be be found. The FBI said Whitehurst had, over the past several years, raised "a variety of concerns about forensic protocols and procedures employed in the FBI Laboratory," and that the bureau or the inspector general's office of the Justice Department, or both, had "vigorously investigated" his concerns in all instances and were continuing to do so. The FBI said its laboratory examinations at trials are "constantly subject to extraordinarily vigorous challenge through cross-examination and the presentation of expert testimony by defense witnesses." Whitehurst told ABC he was speaking out because it was his duty as an FBI agent. "I swore to uphold the constitution of the United States, and I swore to enforce the law. There was no caveat in that swearing -- if I caught persons with badges I would turn my back. I am an FBI agent. It's my duty," he said. Whitehurst testified last month at the terrorism trial of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine other Muslims accused of plotting to bomb the United Nations building and other New York City landmarks that he was pressured to distort findings about the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to favor prosecutors. Citing a series of internal memos sent by Whitehurst to his FBI supervisors, ABC said the agent listed "one example after another of what he calls perjury, fraud, even the fabrication of evidence" in cases at the crime lab going back at least five years. One of the cases, ABC said, involved a 1991 Georgia mail-bombing that killed a federal judge and a civil rights lawyer. It was investigated by Louis Freeh, now the FBI director. Walter LeRoy Moody Jr. was convicted in the deaths. ABC said Whitehurst alleges that two agents in that case, one of whom was Martz, slanted evidence by testifying about tests that weren't done and scientific conclusions they couldn't support. The FBI lab was used to analyze blood evidence involving Simpson. Martz, a toxicologist, was called by the defense, but was declared a hostile witness. He testified that blood on a sock from Simpson's bedroom and from the crime scene showed only vague signs of a preservative. Simpson's lawyers say the blood was planted and the presence of the preservative proved it. While testifying in New York Aug. 14, Whitehurst said Martz was among several FBI investigators who concluded the World Trade Center bomb was urea-nitrate-based even though it was impossible to prove that scientifically because the substance is so common. After Whitehurst complained to his superiors, he said, reports about the bomb were corrected. He said they were accurate when they were introduced at last year's World Trade Center trial, which resulted in convictions for followers of Abdel-Rahman. At the terror conspiracy trial, Whitehurst said when he first told his supervisor about the errors, the supervisor "advised us that he would now have to embarrass his chemistry toxicology unit chief and that we were never, ever again to do something like that to him." Later, Whitehurst said, the supervisor told him he had been instructed by his bosses to have Whitehurst change his reports, and debates within the FBI about the evidence continued throughout the year. Whitehurst, the FBI's main explosives-residue analyst at the time of the bombing, said he has since been demoted and assigned to analyze paint for forensic evidence. -----