UFO buff sought to air grievances against VA

03/10/98
Houston Chronicle

WACO - A disgruntled veteran involved in a 14-hour standoff with authorities at a Veterans Affairs office faced a federal magistrate Monday, while police removed barricades erected during the Sunday siege.

Jason Leigh, 49, a Vietnam veteran, UFO enthusiast and unpublished poet, was arraigned on felony charges of possessing a firearm in a federal facility while committing extortion. Leigh had asked for $1 million for veterans as a condition for his surrender, a demand he later dropped.

Outside the federal courthouse Monday, Leigh said he had made his point.

"There's no other way to get them to listen," he said. "I tried letters, I tried e-mail, I tried phone calls, I tried friends - I tried everything I possibly could."

Leigh rammed a white Jeep Cherokee through a wrought iron security gate and into a back entrance of the Waco Veterans Affairs Regional Office about 6: 45 a.m. Sunday. He called 911 on a cellular phone, told police what he had done and that he was armed. He also claimed he was carrying explosives, a claim he later recanted before his 8:50 p.m. surrender.

He was arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Dennis D. Green on Monday and returned to the McLennan County Jail, where he was held without bond to await transfer to a federal facility. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

"We feel like he is a danger to the community," Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston said. "We don't want people coming to Waco, Texas, thinking it's a place where you can make a point."

John Hurley, Leigh's court-appointed attorney, said he couldn't comment on his defense because he was so new to the case.

"We'll have to see what I can come up with," he said.

Three bomb-sniffing dogs checked every office in the two-story building early Monday, but the hundreds who were evacuated from the 30-square-block area were not allowed back until noon.

"I'm so ready to go home; I feel like a homeless person," said 31- year- old Alisa McCoy after spending a night at the city convention center. "I need a bath."

The VA building will reopen today, Police Chief Gil Miller said, though the smashed custom-made doors and other damage may take several days to repair.

Leigh stayed in the building's cafeteria most of the time, Miller said, and did not cause any more damage after the initial break-in. Police negotiators have said Leigh made it clear from the beginning he did not want to hurt anyone, only to air his grievances against the VA.

Leigh had called the Waco VA office at some point during an appeal for his veteran's benefits, which may have been why he chose the site, negotiator Pat Swanton said Sunday night.

Leigh's driver's license shows he lives in Cleburne, at the same address as his 71-year-old mother. He has numerous postings on the Internet about UFOs in which he claims to hold a doctoral degree and a job history with network television news, none of which could be confirmed.

His claim of sighting a cigar-shaped UFO in Cleburne was reported in the Waco newspaper.

"He's a gentle man as far as I'm concerned," said Lori Elmore- Moon, a former reporter and editor for the Cleburne Times-Review who has known Leigh for several years. "He needs help."

The UFO sighting allegedly occurred on June 11, 1995, at 1:22 p.m. He saw a silver, silent cigar-shaped object floating above the golf course, according to a 1995 Times-Review story. Leigh contacted the Mutual UFO Network, a group that investigates strange sightings, and local television stations trying to alert the public about the presence of UFOs, according to the Times-Review.

Elmore-Moon, now a news anchor for an AM radio station in Cleburne, said she met Leigh years before his UFO sighting, when he used to bring his poetry to the Times-Review. Over the years, they developed a friendship, and she did the first story on his sighting.

Though rumors floated around Cleburne that Leigh claims to have been abducted by aliens, Elmore-Moon said he never told her that point-blank. Rather, he said he was sitting in the woods playing his guitar one day and experienced a period of "lost time," Elmore-Moon said. One minute, he was playing his guitar, and the next thing he knew, his guitar was on the ground beside him and some time had passed, she said.

Leigh told Elmore-Moon that he couldn't recall what had happened during that time, but he did not rule out the possibility of alien abduction.

During some of their conversations, Elmore-Moon said, Leigh mentioned that he was experiencing trouble getting veterans benefits and that he was "not happy with the government."

But, she said, she was more interested in his UFO stories and didn't pay any special attention to his complaints about veterans benefits.

A neighbor who answered the phone at Leigh's driver's license address Sunday night said the suspect was "all right" but "weird."