Thread: Prosecutor: Ark. Doctor Masterminded Bomb Attack UPDATE

Jul 12, 7:01 PM EDT

Prosecutor: Ark. doctor masterminded bomb attack

By JILL ZEMAN BLEED
Associated Press Writer

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- A federal prosecutor told jurors Monday that there is plenty of proof that an Arkansas doctor masterminded a plot to plant a homemade bomb in the state medical board chairman's driveway even though there is no forensic evidence or witnesses to prove he set off the explosive.

Prosecutors claim that Dr. Randeep Mann, a licensed firearms dealer, plotted the February 2009 bomb attack against Dr. Trent Pierce, the head of the Arkansas State Medical Board because he was furious that the board repeatedly disciplined him for overprescribing certain drugs.

Prosecutors said they have no forensic evidence that Mann planted the homemade bomb - made of a spare tire and a hand grenade- that detonated as Pierce tried to move the tire away from his Lexus SUV at his West Memphis home. He suffered serious injuries to his face, neck and arms and was partially blinded in the blast.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Whatley said prosecutors can prove that Mann had access to the types of materials used to build the bomb.

"This case is not hard. This case is not complicated," Whatley told jurors Monday during opening statements at Mann's trial. "It is a case about man who was obsessed with firearms. ... A man who was intent on harming someone else based on what he had available to him."

"It was an animosity that resulted in the bombing," she said.

Prosecutors have said that Mann carried out the attack with the help of others, but no one else has been identified or charged in the bombing. Mann is also accused of illegally possessing two unregistered guns and 98 grenades. His wife, Sangeeta "Sue" Mann, faces perjury and obstruction charges related to the investigation. They both have pleaded not guilty.

Randeep Mann was initially arrested a month after the bombing after a city worker stumbled upon a cache of grenades, buried near Mann's home in Pope County. A grand jury later indicted him in connection with the Pierce bombing.

One of Mann's attorneys, Jack Lassiter, told jurors that the doctor is a hardworking, naturalized U.S. citizen who was unfairly targeted because he stood out after moving to rural Pope County.

The Manns emigrated to the United States from India, and Lassiter said "malicious" gossip circled around Pope County, leading to numerous complaints before the medical board.

The board had stripped Mann of his right to prescribe narcotics, and at the time of the bombing, was investigating whether he should lose his medical license over allegations that he continued to distribute drugs even after losing that privilege.

Lassiter admitted that Mann surrendered his Drug Enforcement Agency permit to prescribe controlled substances, but downplayed Pierce's connection.

When Mann reapplied for the DEA permit and the board rejected it, "Dr. Pierce didn't make the motion to deny. Dr. Pierce didn't second it," Lassiter said.

Sue Mann's attorney, Tim Dudley, told jurors that his client is innocent and that she didn't conspire to obstruct the investigation against her husband. She's accused of lying to the grand jury and taking blank, pre-signed checks from Mann's medical clinic before a search warrant was executed there.

"The government can't touch hide nor hair in proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in this case," Dudley said.

The trial, expected to last at least a month, continues Tuesday with prosecutors calling their first witnesses.

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Ark. Doctor Convicted in Bomb Attack On Board Head
Monday, 09 Aug 2010 02:32 PM

An Arkansas doctor accused of seeking revenge on a state medical board that repeatedly disciplined him was found guilty Monday of masterminding a homemade bomb attack that disfigured and partially blinded the board's chairman.

A federal jury deliberated for a little over two days before convicting Dr. Randeep Mann, 52, of using a weapon of mass destruction and destroying a vehicle with an explosive in the February 2009 attack that nearly killed Dr. Trent Pierce. Mann, a federal firearms dealer, also was convicted of illegally possessing 98 grenades and a machine gun. He was acquitted of illegally possessing a shotgun.

He faces up to life in prison for the weapon of mass destruction charge when he is sentenced on a later date.

Before the verdict was read, Mann smiled at his children and other family members who were watching from the courtroom gallery. He and his wife, Sangeeta "Sue" Mann, who was also on trial, spoke quietly to one another before hearing the jury's decision, as they had throughout the five-week-long trial.

One of Randeep Mann's sons began loudly crying when the first guilty verdict against his father was read. Other family members began crying as the drumbeat of guilty verdicts continued.

As jurors were filing out of the courtroom, Sue Mann collapsed into her chair, but she remained conscious. Her husband gently rubbed the back of her head with his hand.

Mann's family declined to comment after the verdict, as did Pierce's wife, Melissa, and their lawyer, Betsy Murray. Pierce was not in court Monday because he was seeing patients in his West Memphis medical clinic, and his attorney said he would not comment on the verdict.

U.S. District Judge Brian Miller allowed Sue Mann to remain free on bond pending her sentencing. Her husband was ordered to remain behind bars.

Prosecutors acknowledged having no forensic evidence connecting Mann to the bomb scene or proving he planted the explosive — made from a hand grenade duct-taped to a spare tire — in Pierce's driveway in West Memphis.

Defense attorneys argued investigators targeted the wrong person because of the family physician's race and his love of weapons collecting.

Defense attorney Blake Hendrix said he planned to appeal the verdict.

"We have an abiding conviction that the evidence in this case is legally insufficient to support this jury's verdict," Hendrix said.

Still, prosecutors argued, there were links, including an e-mail Mann sent to his brother in India with the subject line "Pierce" and a photograph of the doctor, with the text, "I hope this picture is good." The bomb itself was made from a spare tire from a 2002 Nissan Altima, and prosecutors said a friend and business partner of Randeep Mann's had an Altima from which the spare was missing when federal agents executed a search warrant.

A friend of Randeep Mann's also testified that the doctor repeatedly said members of the Arkansas State Medical Board needed to suffer like he suffered.

"You don't have to have forensic evidence every time you try a case, and I think the jury understood that," assistant U.S. attorney Karen Whatley said.

Pierce, whose face remains speckled with bits of black tire still lodged in his skin from the bombing, led the panel that sanctioned Mann after complaints he was over-prescribing painkillers and other addictive drugs. The board revoked Mann's right to prescribe narcotics after complaints that 10 of his patients overdosed and died.

At the time of the bombing, the board was investigating whether Mann was continuing to prescribe controlled substances, despite the revocation of his Drug Enforcement Agency permit to do so.

Mann was convicted on seven of the eight charges he faced. Along with using a weapon of mass destruction, Mann was charged with destroying a vehicle with an explosive because the homemade bomb was placed next to Pierce's Lexus hybrid sport utility vehicle. The blast tore the bumper from the SUV.

Mann was initially arrested after 98 grenades were found buried in a clearing near his rural Pope County home. He was convicted of possessing those grenades, as well as an unregistered machine gun. The doctor had more than 100 firearms in gun safes in his home, but only two were found to be unregistered when federal agents executed a search warrant in March 2009.

Mann was acquitted of possessing an unregistered shotgun after jurors heard testimony that an official with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told Mann he didn't need to register the gun unless he sold it.

Mann and his wife also were convicted of obstruction of justice charges. She was acquitted of lying to a grand jury investigating the case.

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Associated Press Writer Chuck Bartels contributed to this report

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