Phelps asks feds to probe bombing

TOPEKA – Claiming an explosion at his daughter’s home is the type of violence a federal civil rights law was enacted to address, the Rev. Fred Phelps Sr. asked Attorney General Janet Reno on Tuesday for a federal investigation of the incident.

Phelps, pastor of Westboro Baptist Church, said pieces of orange plastic, apparently from some kind of bomb, were found Sunday night in the yard of Shirley Phelps-Roper’s home in the family church-residential complex in west central Topeka.

However, a Topeka Fire Department arson investigator said he knew nothing about pieces of plastic being found, adding, “Right now, we have no indication anyone is pouncing on the Phelpses.”

A Published report said there were other random explosions on the Topeka’s west side Sunday night, but the investigator, Jim Campbell, said his office had no bomb reports to check out other than the one at the Phelps-Roper home.

Campbell said the arson unit had just started its probe and would continue until it determined what happened.

Phelps, known for his anti-gay picketing in Topeka and other cities, said he thinks the bombing was spawned by a “lynch-mob mentality”
against him and his family. He accused law officials of looking the other way.

He announced that the church was offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of whoever was responsible for the explosion.

Phelps said he wrote Reno asking for an investigation under a 30-year-old federal civil rights law passed as a result of church bombings in Birmingham, Ala., in the 1960s.

He also wrote Topeka Police Chief Gerald Beavers, demanding better local investigation of acts of violence against him and his church members.

Phelps accused Shawnee County District Attorney Joan Hamilton of refusing to prosecute those who commit acts of violence against him and church members, even though, he said, “We pretty much know who’s doing this.”

But Hamilton said Phelps receives daily police protection at his picketing sites, something no other Topekan gets even if threatened, and said she would prosecute anyone an investigation shows is responsible for the explosion at the Phelps-Roper residence.

Hamilton recently won convictions on two misdemeanor disorderly conduct counts she filed against Phelps growing out of his picketing activities, but he has appealed.

Neither Phelps-Roper nor any of her eight sleeping children, ranging in age from 4 days to 16 years, were hurt in the explosion. A fence and a van sustained minor damage when struck by fragments of what Phelps said appeared to be a plastic bomb tossed onto the property.