Security Guard Fought to Clear Name After '96 Olympic Bombing

Aug 30, 07:41 AM

Current Headlines: By HARRY R. WEBER

By Harry R. Weber

The Associated Press

ATLANTA

Richard Jewell, the former security guard who was erroneously linked to the 1996 Olympic bombing and then sued news organizations in a decade-long effort to defend his reputation, died Wednesday. He was 44.

Jewell was found dead in his west Georgia home, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said.

"There's no suspicion whatsoever of any type of foul play," Meriwether County Coroner Johnny Worley said.

He told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Jewell had been diagnosed with diabetes in February and had a couple of toes amputated.

"He had been going downhill ever since," Worley said.

The GBI planned to do an autopsy today, Bankhead said.

Lin Wood, Jewell's longtime attorney, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that he was "devastated" by the news.

Wood, who was in New York trying to get back to Atlanta, said in a follow-up e-mail that Jewell's legacy "is that of a devoted and loving son, husband and friend."

Wood described Jewell as "a dedicated public servant whose heroism the night of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing saved the lives of many people."

Jewell was initially hailed as a hero for spotting a suspicious backpack in a park and moving people out of harm's way just before a bomb exploded during a concert at the Atlanta Summer Olympics.

The blast killed one and injured 111.

Three days after the bombing, an unattributed report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution described him as "the focus" of the investigation.

Other media outlets, to varying degrees, also linked Jewell to the investigation.

Reporters from around the country set up camp outside Jewell's mother's apartment in the Atlanta area.

He was never arrested or charged, but he was questioned and was a subject of search warrants.

Eighty-eight days after the initial news report, U.S. Attorney Kent Alexander issued a statement saying Jewell "is not a target" of the bombing investigation and that the "unusual and intense publicity" surrounding him was "neither designed nor desired by the FBI, and in fact interfered with the investigation."

In 1997, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno expressed regret over the leak regarding Jewell.

"I'm very sorry it happened," she told reporters. "I think we owe him an apology."

Eventually, the bomber turned out to be anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph, who also planted three other bombs in the Atlanta area and in Birmingham, Ala.

Those explosives killed a police officer, maimed a nurse and injured several other people.

Rudolph was captured after spending five years hiding out in the mountains of western North Carolina. He pleaded guilty to all four bombings last year and is serving life in prison.

Jewell sued several media companies, including NBC, and settled with them for undisclosed amounts. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution never settled a lawsuit Jewell filed against it.

According to Wood, Jewell also settled lawsuits against CNN, the New York Post and Piedmont College, a former employer of his. The amounts were confidential, Wood said.

Wood said Wednesday that the AJC lawsuit is set for trial in January.

"I expect to pursue it for Richard and his estate," Wood said.

A lawyer for the newspaper, Peter Canfield, did not immediately return several calls seeking comment. Canfield has said previously that the newspaper stands by its coverage of Jewell.

Jewell, in an interview with AP last year around the time of the 10th anniversary of the Olympic bombing, insisted the lawsuits were not about making money - he bought his mother a place to live and gave 73 percent of the settlement money to his attorneys and to the government in taxes - but about making sure the truth was told.

"I'm not rich by any means monetarily," he said at the time. "I'm rich because of my family. If I never get there, I don't care. I'm gonna get my say in court."

Since the Olympics, Jewell worked in various law enforcement jobs, including as a police officer in Pendergrass, Ga., where his partner was fatally shot in 2004 during a pursuit of a suspect.

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