Sting In Doubt Evidence Against Ira Suspect Weakens

30 July 1990
Sun Sentinel
Lisa Ocker

An Irish-born Canadian charged in a terrorist plot to buy a Stinger missile has been imprisoned since January on evidence a magistrate now says will not likely pass a judge`s scrutiny, let alone a jury`s.

The strongest evidence against Sean McCann -- an allegation that he followed undercover agents on Jan. 9 after they met suspected Irish Republican Army members in North Palm Beach to negotiate the missile sale -- no longer exists. Prosecutors have conceded that agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and U.S. Customs Service made a mistake in identifying McCann.

But the FBI has known since before his arrest that McCann, 35, was not even in Palm Beach County on that day, FBI officials told the Sun-Sentinel last week.

``On Jan. 9, 1990 ... FBI agents positively identified Mr. McCann as being in Houston, Texas,`` said Bob Neumann, FBI special agent in charge of the West Palm Beach office. ``That information was provided by us to the U.S. Attorney`s Office.``

But if the U.S. Attorney`s Office knew what the FBI knew, prosecutors rejected the information in favor of the allegation that was more favorable to the government`s case -- or rejected it at least until after a bond hearing on Jan. 19.

In that hearing, customs agent Mark Oden testified that McCann`s role in the plot was to provide ``surveillance`` to ensure that agents posing as arms dealers ``weren`t other bad guys or possibly law enforcement.`` A magistrate ordered McCann, Kevin McKinley of Riviera Beach, Joseph McColgan of Northern Ireland, and Seamus Moley of Canada jailed until trial.

Neumann deferred to the U.S. Attorney`s Office when asked when he provided the surveillance information to prosecutors. The U.S. Attorney`s Office has declined to comment because the case is pending.

In May, prosecutors conceded the mistake to McCann`s attorney, Jo Ann Harris, who then filed motions for bail and to dismiss the five-count indictment against him.

In a scathing order issued on July 17, U.S. Magistrate Ann Vitunac not only recommended bail for McCann, but said the evidence against him was so ``slim`` it probably would not withstand defense motions at trial to dismiss charges against him.

U.S. District Judge Jose Gonzalez accepted Vitunac`s bail recommendation on June 23. McCann remains at the Metropolitan Correctional Institution in Miami while his attorney works out technicalities, including arrangements to post the $200,000 bail.