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CNN Live Today

Pipe Bomb Suspect Makes First Appearance in Federal Court

Aired May 08, 2002 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Pipe bomb suspect Luke John Helder makes his first appearance in federal court later today.

CNN's Martin Savidge is outside the detention center in Reno, Nevada with more -- Marty.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Luke Helder has an appearance before a federal magistrate set for about 3:00 this afternoon local time. Of course that would be about 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time. He has been transferred from this facility here to the federal courthouse in downtown Reno. He was brought into this detention facility in Wasshaw (ph) Country about 12:40 local time last night, 3:40 in the morning Eastern Time, after what had been a high-speed chase that ended about 40 miles east of Reno, Nevada.

When he was brought here, according to the sheriff, he was said to be smiling, cordial, polite and cooperative. He was talking with FBI officials that brought him in the transportation from where he was arrested into the facility here. And as a result of that conversation, he is now been placed on a suicide watch. Apparently, he gave the indication that he is attempting or would attempt to commit suicide. That means he has been put in an isolated cell and taken away any dangerous materials, and the sheriff's deputies would be checking on him every 15 minutes.

He was awakened this morning at 8:00 a.m. local time, given breakfast. At that time, he said he very much wanted to get in touch with his family back in Minnesota. That was on his mind. He wanted to find out if his family was still standing by him. The sheriff made the call, talked to family members, and he confirmed that the family was still standing by, and he also put the young man on the telephone, and it was about a 10-minute conversation, and then he was transferred downtown this.

This is the federal affidavit that was against Luke Helder. It's a fairly substantial document put out by the FBI, does not contain all of the evidence they say they have again the 21-year-old, but merely enough evidence to show probable cause. It goes into a lot of specifics, but primarily the most damming evidence appears to be Helder's own conversations with friends and family back in Minnesota during the alleged bombing spree, and also notes and letters he sent back home, notes that FBI say are very similar in tone, in content and in words. The notes that were apparently found among the explosive devices that were spread among five different states. Let me point out something that is in the back of this document here. It's essentially based upon a conversation that was held yesterday afternoon. It says, the FBI affidavit, "At approximately 4:15 p.m. on May 7th, Helder contacted two friends by phone in Minnesota. According to these individuals, Helder admitted responsibility for the mailbox pipe bombings in those conversations, not a direct confession, but allegedly a confession he made to friends.

Also, another interesting thing in this affidavit is the fact that during May 4th and 5th at the time of this alleged bombing spree of mailboxes, he was stopped three times by police officers in a number of different states, twice for speeding, and once for not wearing a seatbelt.

It is almost a comical depiction on the first arrest made, I believe, just outside of Nebraska. Essentially, he was pulled over for speeding. The officer comes to the vehicle, and Helder reportedly said to him, I didn't mean it hurt anybody, and the highway patrolman says, that's all well and good, but I only stopped you for speeding. It should be pointed out at that particular time, the identity of Helder was not known, it was not made public, so the officer let him go.

He was stopped twice again, and each time, he was let go with either warnings or citations. A very interesting tale -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: No doubt. Marty, back to that conversation between Luke and his father. It wasn't long ago that we learned it was his father that tipped off the feds about his son. Did they talk about that at all?

SAVIDGE: Well, the conversation, at least the exact words that we used, weren't depicted to us by the sheriff. I asked, was it an emotional conversation? He said, no, it was not. He only expressed that the boy very much wanted to talk to his family, and wanted to hear from them they were still supporting and are standing by him, and apparently they are. But obviously, you can imagine the angst that family is is going through, as any family would -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Martin Savidge, thanks so much.

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