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15
THE TRIAL
The trial started on April Fool's Day. Conviction depended upon one thing: whether the jury believed the six
different statements of Duane Peak. The defense asked Duane how the police had treated him during his
incarceration at the jail in Fremont.
Q: Haven't the police occasionally brought you into Omaha?
A: Yes.
Q: To visit relatives?
A: Yes.
Q: And taken you out to dinner?
A: Yes.
Q: You even had dinner once at the Silver Lining, didn’t you?
A: Yes.
Q: Who was with you?
A: Mr. O ' Leary, Mr. Cooper [the prosecutors] and Sgts. Daily and Coleman.
Q: And the persons who have carried you back and forth for various court proceedings have been what two
officers primarily?
A: Sgts. Coleman and Daily.
Q: But you have become close to them, won't you say?
A: Yes.
Q: You feel you understand them?
A: Yes.
Q: And they understand you, do you think?
A: Yes.
Q: Do they put you in handcuffs when they transport you from place to place?
A: No.
Q: They don't have to do that, do they?
A: No.
In addition to Duane's testimony, there was some physical evidence presented against Mondo and Ed, what one
might call the "blinded with science" portion of the trial. A piece of wire was found in the basement of the house
next door to the blast a few feet from a workbench. The prosecution claimed it had come from the bomb. However,
it was unlike any piece of wire in the demonstration bomb shown to the jury. Furthermore, this wire was supposedly
blasted from one house to the other yet it DID NOT HAVE ANY traces of dynamite on it.
The ATF tool expert put the piece of wire that was half a centimeter wide, under a magnifying lens and magnified it
50 times. Then he cut half an inch of sheet metal with Mondo's pliers and magnified that 50 times. THE SHEET
LEAD SAMPLE WAS TWENTY FIVE TIMES THE SIZE OF THE PIECE OF WIRE. The tool expert found 15 points
of similarity between the two samples. However, there were 25 points of dissimilarity. The two samples were more
dissimilar than similar yet the ATF technician concluded that Mondo's pliers were the pliers that had cut this piece
of wire. Anything the State wanted to enter into evidence, no matter how ridiculous, the judge was willing to allow.
The State also claimed that dynamite particles were present in the clothing of both defendants. Ed Poindexter had
dynamite particles inside the left front pocket of his camouflage jacket. Mondo had dynamite particles inside the
right front pocket of his black and white striped pants. There were no dynamite particles on the exterior of their
clothing.
Neither Mondo nor Ed had even the most minute trace of dynamite on his hands. The ATF chemist testified that
you take a cotton swab and wet it and when you run the swab over the hands, simply because it's wet, it picks up
the particles. It's no more complicated than washing your hands.
Ed's attorney questioned the chemist about how you might get dynamite particles on the inside of your pockets.
Q: If I had a handkerchief which contained ammonia dynamite particles and I gave that handkerchief to you
and you put it in your pocket, that might contaminate your pocket with ammonia dynamite particles, might it
not?
A: Yes.
Q: And the same thing could be true with a package of cigarettes, if you transferred a package of cigarettes
that contained ammonia dynamite particles, to your pocket from my pocket, those particles could be
transferred, could they not?
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