Prosecutors respond to Oklahoma bombing appeal

DENVER (AP) -- Michael Fortier's 12-year prison term for not alerting authorities about the Oklahoma City bombing is appropriate<br>considering the explosion's devastation, prosecutors said Tuesday

Tuesday, April 11th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

DENVER (AP) -- Michael Fortier's 12-year prison term for not alerting authorities about the Oklahoma City bombing is appropriate
considering the explosion's devastation, prosecutors said Tuesday in asking that his sentence be upheld.

In a brief filed with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, attorneys dispute Fortier's argument that his sentence was too long and that he shouldn't be held responsible for the April 19, 1995, bombing that resulted in 168 deaths.

They also dispute that U.S. District Judge Thomas Van Bebber of Kansas City, Kan., who imposed the sentence, was biased and
vindictive against Fortier.

Fortier pleaded guilty to charges he knew in advance about the bombing plot but didn't warn anyone. He also admitted he helped
Timothy McVeigh move and sell stolen weapons and that he had lied to FBI agents after the attack.

McVeigh, a friend of Fortier's, was convicted on federal murder charges and sentenced to death. Terry Nichols was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter.

Van Bebber sentenced Fortier to 12 years in prison and fined him $200,000 in May 1998.

Fortier appealed the sentence and the appeals
court in Denver sent the case back to Van Bebber, saying he mistakenly used guidelines for first-degree murder rather than
manslaughter.

Van Bebber imposed the same prison sentence but reduced the fine to $75,000. He said a 12-year sentence was warranted "based on a combination of factors that the court considered individually and in combination with one another."

The factors included the deaths, physical injuries, extreme psychological injury, property loss and damage, disruption of
government function and the public welfare, the judge wrote.

Federal prosecutors said Van Bebber comprehensively detailed the aggravating factors and explained the reason for the sentence. They argued that Fortier's contention that he should receive a shorter
sentence because he bears no responsibility for the bombing is wrong.

"Fortier was not sentenced as a bombing conspirator; his 12-year sentence is much more lenient than McVeigh's death sentence
and Nichols' sentence of life imprisonment," the attorneys wrote.