White separatist Randy Weaver and Kevin Harris deny a convicted felon's claims that they "decided to shoot first and ask questions later" in a gun battle with U.S. marshals in 1992, two newspapers reported today.
Jailhouse informant James Radler is quoted in U.S. Justice Department documents as telling investigators that while he and Kevin Harris were cellmates, Harris confessed to fatally shooting deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan without provocation."What this guy is reported to have said in the papers is false, he's a liar," Harris told The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash.
Weaver was equally adamant about Radler's allegations.
"That is a crock of crap," Weaver told The Idaho Statesman of Boise.
Weaver and Harris, a family friend, were acquitted in July in U.S. District Court in Boise of murder and conspiracy charges in the Degan death.
Degan and Weaver's 14-year-old son, Samuel, were killed in an Aug. 21, 1992, shootout at Weaver's mountaintop cabin near Bonners Ferry, 40 miles south of the Canadian border.
The confrontation occurred while federal agents were surveying the Weaver property, hoping to find a way to arrest him for failing to appear for trial on an earlier federal weapons charge.
The shootout led to an 11-day siege by federal agents at Ruby Ridge. Weaver's wife, Vicki, was killed by FBI sniper fire on the second day of the standoff.
The Idaho Statesman on Thursday, citing a Sept. 13, 1993, memo from the U.S. Marshals Service, said Radler shared a cell with Harris in the Ada County Jail for a week shortly after the standoff ended.