Prosecutors drop appeal in pipe bomb case

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Fort Myers will go ahead with the case against Perry Johnson, 44, and Eddie Cavanaugh, 46, Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy said this week.

The case is set for trial in December before U.S. District Judge John Steele, who ruled Aug. 14 that Collier County sheriff's investigators and FBI agents hadn't properly advised Cavanaugh of his constitutional right against self-incrimination and had questioned Johnson after he had already invoked his right to remain silent.

The advisement of their rights, called a Miranda warning, is a fundamental concept in criminal law. The U.S. Attorney's Office had argued the men had waived their rights. The prosecutors filed a notice of intent to appeal Steele's ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

Steve Cole, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said the notice of appeal was reviewed by the Solicitor General's Office in Washington, which handles federal appeals. That office decided not to go forward with the appeal and on Oct. 16 filed a motion to dismiss it.

"We're going forward with the evidence we have," Molloy said.

Molloy wouldn't comment on what evidence remains against Johnson, of Louisiana, and Cavanaugh, of 758 93rd Ave. N., North Naples. They face five felony charges in connection with two bank robberies that they admitted to after their arrest Feb. 19. They also face gun possession and bomb-making charges.

Agents with the Sheriff's Office and the FBI had investigated pipe bombs found behind the Publix grocery store at Immokalee Road and Collier Boulevard and under a car at the Walgreen's drug store at Airport-Pulling and Vanderbilt Beach roads.

Cavanaugh had planted the two pipe bombs, one of which exploded underneath a Lexus at the drug store, prosecutors say. About 15 minutes later, a motorist passing behind the Publix saw a second device. It had not exploded. but the bomb squad detonated it.

A half hour later, at 12:30 p.m., the AmSouth bank just off Immokalee Road was robbed. One robber wore a suit; the other wore a wig, fake mustache and a blue medical scrub top. They held hostages for about 15 minutes and bound two women while they got the cash, about $42,000, according to prosecutors.

Hoping the detonations would send deputies scrambling in two directions, the robbers planned to rob the bank and escape in a rented car. But deputies were quickly on their trail as they headed north on Interstate 75. They were caught off Immokalee Road near Mediterra.

Authorities said the two men made incriminating statements that implicated themselves in the AmSouth robbery, the planting of the bombs and in the June 2002 robbery of Royal Palm Bank near Immokalee Road that ended with a bank employee suffering a gunshot wound to the leg.

There are motions pending to try the two defendants separately on the two bank robberies. But the defense attorneys say the motions to have separate trials are moot now that the incriminating statements made by each can't be used as evidence in the trial of either.

"I think they're going to have problems," Cavanaugh's attorney, Charles Harris, said of the federal prosecutors. "The evidence is light on several of the charges without (the confessions)."

The statements are only some of the evidence against Cavanaugh and Johnson, according to court records. After Johnson was taken into custody, deputies found a bundle of cash in his front pocket. In the rental car, deputies found two guns, an AmSouth deposit slip, lighters, a black wig, bundled currency, a black duffel bag and a blue medical scrub top.

In Cavanaugh's home, investigators found items including galvanized steel pipe and stainless steel tape, all "consistent with the materials used to build the pipe bombs exploded earlier in the day," according to prosecutors.

Johnson's attorney, Lee Hollander, said he's not surprised the prosecutors chose to drop the appeal. He felt the judge's ruling would be upheld. But the attorney also anticipated the government would go ahead with its case.

"I never believed the entire case was going to get thrown out. I knew it was going to have to be resolved," Hollander said.

The defendants, who could receive a life sentence if convicted, are held without bond at the Lee County jail. They have pleaded innocent.