I never heard about this! It was an act of terror, was it not? It sure didn't get a lot of press coverage. She died the same as the burn victims in the WTC.
Not for personal use & all that jazz.
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
May 21, 2002 Tuesday Final Edition
NEWS; Pg. A1
4 ADMIT FRAUD AMID QUESTIONS ON DEATH OF LICENSE EXAMINER
Lawrence Buser
After four men with ties to the Middle East pleaded guilty Monday in a Tennessee driver's license fraud case, new questions arose about a central figure in the case - a state driver's license examiner who died in a mysterious, fiery car wreck just days after her arrest.
The case drew national attention earlier this year because of the still-unsolved death of Katherine Smith and the revelation one of the defendants, a naturalized plumber from Jordan living in New York, had been in the World Trade Center days before the twin towers were destroyed by hijacked airliners.
In a hearing Monday morning before U.S. Dist. Judge Bernice Donald, federal prosecutors said, however, had the cases gone to trial, there would have been no evidence presented that the defendants were involved in terrorist activities or in Smith's Feb. 10 death on U.S. 72 in Fayette County. Federal and state authorities said Monday that the wreck remains under investigation but the fire in the car was set and the crash did not cause Smith's death.
Tennessee Highway Patrol Capt. Jimmy Erwin said Monday that he is waiting on autopsy test results from the Medical Examiner's Office before the cause of death is officially determined.
He said neither suicide nor homicide has been ruled out.
Smith, a state employee for 27 years, had been charged with conspiring to provide driver's licenses fraudulently as part of a scheme involving the other defendants.
A handwritten letter by Smith dated Feb. 5 - the day of her arrest - was included in pretrial discovery material the government provided to defense attorneys.
After the hearing, defense attorney Jeffrey Jones showed the letter to several reporters.
Asked if the letter appeared to be a suicide note, Jones said, "That's certainly one interpretation."
Written on green flowered stationery headed "Gardening Angel," the note read: "I Katherine Smith tried to help Kal. He didn't give me any money. He was I thought my friend. I was trying to help him. Now I've lost everything and am called a liar when I was telling the truth. I can't live without any honor. I live a lonely life true enough but I didn't lie to the FBI. Forgive me John. Forgive me Vernola. I can't live this way. I love you both and wish and pray for the best. Love Mama."
The names in the letter, apparently discovered during the FBI's investigation, refer to alleged conspiracy ringleader Khaled Odtllah, who is known as "Kal," and Smith's son and daughter, John Barton IV and Vernola Buchanan.
Pleading guilty to the one-count conspiracy indictment Monday were Odtllah, 31, a Cordova resident from Jerusalem; Mostafa Said Abou-Shahin, 26, a carpenter from Egypt; Sakher A. Hammad, 24, a New York plumber from Jordan and the lone defendant who is an American citizen, and his cousin Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad, 32, also a plumber living in New York.
A fifth defendant, Mohammed A. Fares, pleaded guilty earlier this month. Fares has a Venezuelan passport, but his family is from Lebanon.
Each faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine and a minimum of immediate probation when sentenced in June and August by Donald. Those who are not citizens also face the possibility of deportation and remain in federal custody.
A minor teenager arrested in the case was handled in Juvenile Court.
Federal prosecutor Tim DiScenza said Odtllah, who had been living here for two years, provided Tennessee driver's licenses to illegal immigrants for about $1,000 each.
The Hammads of New York found clients and drove them to Memphis where Smith would issue them driver's licenses without requiring proper documentation, he said.
He said Tennessee was vulnerable to such a scheme because the state does not require immigrants to provide a Social Security number.
The Hammads in February drove Fares and Abou-Shahin and the juvenile to Memphis from New York to get four licenses. They met with Odtllah here and were arrested as they attempted to obtain licenses at the Summer Avenue testing station.
FBI agents and the highway patrol had set up surveillance after receiving a tip from the New York FBI office.
During their separate guilty pleas Monday, at least two of the defendants asked their attorneys to emphasize that they are not being accused of terrorist activity. DiScenza then made a statement to that effect.
Jones, who represents Sakher Hammad, said the World Trade Center visitor's pass found in his client's wallet was needed because he had worked on the center's sprinkler system plumbing.
He said Hammad also had a card that indicated he had donated money to the victims of the Sept. 11 attack.
"My guy's a fairly conservative guy," Jones said.
The guilty pleas were straightforward and routine for the most part as Donald asked each man, some requiring Arabic interpreters, if he was pleading voluntarily and understood the implications.
She also asked each defendant why he was pleading guilty, drawing tearful responses from Odtllah who said, "I made mistake. I didn't know I was breaking the law. I didn't mean to break the law."
Abdelmuhsen Mahmid Hammad also wept when asked about his residency in New York, where he had been living with his wife and three U.S.-born children.
"I'm just concerned about my wife," he said through an interpreter.