Richard Jewell, cleared of suspicion in the Olympic Park bombing, said Monday the FBI and the media engaged in a "mad rush" that nearly destroyed his life.
"I did not set out to be a hero," Jewell told a news conference, his voice breaking at times. "I set out to do my job."The one-time Olympic security guard tearfully thanked his mother and his lawyers Monday for their faith in him through his 88-day effort to convince the world of his innocence.
"For 88 days I lived a nightmare," Jewell said. "For 88 days, my mother lived a nightmare, too. Mom, thanks for sticking behind me and believing in me."
The July 27 explosion during a late-night concert in Centennial Olympic Park killed one person and injured more than 100. While he was never charged, Jewell's name was leaked to the media and he became the center of intense coverage.
The effort to clear his name ended Saturday when federal prosecutors sent Jewell a letter clearing him of suspicion.
"In their mad rush to fulfill their own personal agends, the FBI and the media almost destroyed me and my mother," Jewell said.
"I'm glad that the emperor has finally admitted that he has no clothes," said his attorney, Watson Bryant.
Also Monday, federal prosecutors released the FBI affidavits that were used to gain warrants for searches of Jewell's home and other property in the days after the bombing.
The papers, which a judge had ordered unsealed, quote several acquaintances speaking of Jewell's fascination with police work. They also quote witnesses who saw Jewell in the vicinity of the explosion, but none who saw him handle the bomb.
"Jewell was always reading and talking about `cop stuff,' " one witness is quoted as saying. Another called him an "adrenaline junkie." The names of the witnesses who spoke to the FBI were blacked out of the document before it was released.
Federal prosecutors sent Jewell a letter Saturday clearing him of suspicion, but that won't change the minds of people who already labeled him guilty, his lawyers said.
"There will always be people out there who believe Richard is the bomber," said Wayne Grant. "There will always be people who stare. There will always be whispers of recognition."
Jewell told the Times his chances of getting hired in law enforcement are "between slim and none."
In an interview Monday on NBC's "Today" show, Grant said federal prosecutors should have made a more public announcement of their change of heart, which was contained in a letter given to Jewell's lawyers at a meeting. Delivering the letter so privately "seems to be an effort to keep this on the quiet side," he said.
Still, Grant said, "I think this is the best you can expect from the government. They are not in the business of apologizing. I think it's very difficult for them to admit they made a mistake."
After his name was leaked three days after the explosion, Jewell became a virtual prisoner in the apartment he shares with his mother, with reporters and the FBI watching his every move.
The media "just jumped on it like a piranha on a bleeding cow," Jewell said.
Roy Black, the lawyer who represented William Kennedy Smith in his rape trial, said Jewell is "the perfect image for why we have the presumption of innocence. But to be honest, this is one of those times that there is a wrong with no real remedy."
His lawyers have a potential remedy. They plan to sue news organizations and reporters who they believe tried to make Jewell fit a profile of a bomber - a military type or aspiring police officer seeking to become a hero.
Federal investigators have been studying more than 200 rolls of videotape and still photographs taken at the park near the time of the bombing and have started re-interviewing bomb victims.