As the story details, O.C. Smith, the medical examiner in question, was arrested for lying about being attacked by a bomber back in June of 2002. Smith has overseen some extremely unusual cases in the past few years -- including the one that led to the bizarre incident at the center of his arrest. The current charges result from a grand-jury investigation.
The Post story describes that incident briefly:
- Smith was discovered June 1, 2002, wrapped in barbed wire in a stairwell outside his office with a bomb strapped to him. He said he was attacked by an unknown assailant who threw a chemical in his face to blind him.
An Associated Press report from June 2002 explains further:
- While the attacker's identity remains a mystery, authorities say they've found links to several similar bombs and three threatening letters concerning the medical examiner's testimony in a death penalty case.
"We think the letter writer is the person we're looking for," James Cavanaugh, agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for Tennessee, said Monday.
Smith, 49, was attacked as he left work Saturday night and was found 2 1/2 hours later lying in a parking lot.
A bomb squad removed the device and Smith escaped without serious injury, returning to the scene with minor cuts and bruises to assist authorities. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, including a profiler, and the FBI were called in.
Smith, who has declined to talk with reporters since the attack, was left in the parking lot of the Shelby County Regional Forensic Center on the campus of the University of Tennessee medical school. He suffered a burn on his face from a chemical thrown or sprayed in his eyes to subdue him.
Cavanaugh described the attacker as a 20- to 30-year-old male.
Gene Marquez, the ATF agent in charge in Memphis, said the bomb strapped to Smith was similar to three other "unsophisticated" explosive devices found in March in a hallway near Smith's lab.
All the devices were designed to hurt people, Marquez said.
The language in a letter from the bomber to a Memphis reporter ran thus:
- "I received HOLY ORDERS from a MESSANGER OF GOD on Friday in the FORM of Robert HUTTON (Hutton is Workman's attorney), son of the ONE TRUE CHURCH speaking to me through the Mike Fleming show. He told me the LIAR, O.C. SMITH, a DOCTOR-KILLER committing two MORTAL SINS. He is BEARING FALSE WITNESS with his lies decit and untruths in an effort to MURDER PHILLIP (sic) R. WORKMAN.
"Long have I waited for my HOLY ORDER to fight against the DOCTOR- KILLER abortionists but now I know OUR LORD was saving me for something larger.
"Through your help I understand better the "Little General" commands a host of DEMONS doing the work of SATAN in CESAR's WORLD.
"GOD BLESS YOU A THOUSAND TIMES."
Well, I'm not an expert, but relatively experienced in reading extremist documents, and this strikes me as relatively genuine. Fairly typical, in many respects. If Smith was the source of these letters -- which seems to be the prosecutor's suggestion, though the matter may not come up in the course of the trial -- they seem to indicate either that a) he is unusually well versed in these kinds of threats, and unusually conniving, or b) the investigators are in the process of repeating the Richard Jewell nightmare on a smaller scale.
It will be interesting to see if prosecutors can prove the former.
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