Lester Coleman
Encyclopedia
Lester Knox Coleman II is an American who was the co-author of the 1993 book Trail of the Octopus, The Untold Story of Pan Am 103, in which he claimed that a secret drug sting enabled terrorists to evade airport security in the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan American World Airways Flight 103. Coleman claimed he was at one point employed by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) Coleman further alleged that a compromised American covert drug-operation allowed Iranian-backed terrorists – the PFLP-GC, led by Ahmed Jibril
– to slip a Semtex
bomb aboard the plane. On September 11, 1997, Coleman stated to a New York Federal court that "...he lied when he claimed that a secret drug sting enabled terrorists to evade airport security in the bombing..." In a plea agreement, Coleman was sentenced to time served, which was five months, and six months' home confinement under electronic monitoring. Conspiracy theories alleging that the federal convictions of Lester Coleman were an effort to silence him and to hide the truth about Pan Am Flight 103
circulated around the internet
.
. Coleman, who lived in Alabama
, once served as a news director for WSGN radio in Birmingham
, and White House Correspondent for RKO Network, before joining CBS News in Beirut in 1984. In the 1970s and early 1980s Coleman worked in several local newspaper and television departments. In 1985 he worked as a correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network
in the Middle East. CBN later closed its Beirut
bureau, and Coleman was no longer employed by CBN. He also worked as a public relations employee of the Boy Scouts of America
in Chicago.
According to Atlanta Journal-Constitution journalist Ron Martz, in the 1980s, Lester Coleman frequently traveled through Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East and worked as a journalist, primarily in television. Coleman had a Lebanese wife. According to Martz, Coleman frequently used the pseudonym "Collin Knox" while publishing some works. Tom Silewski, the managing editor of Soldier of Fortune
magazine, said that Coleman used the alias Colin Knox when writing two stories for the magazine. Michael Hurley, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration
's (DEA) operations in Nicosia
, Cyprus
, said that Coleman worked as an overseas informant for the DEA. Joe Boohaker, a Birmingham, Alabama man who served as Coleman's defense attorney, said that Coleman worked for Defense Intelligence Agency
and checked on the DEA's operations.
magazine article on the crash of Pan Am Flight 103
, "Pan Am 103 Why Did They Die?," states that Coleman was a Defense Intelligence Agency
(DIA) agent, a later article in the American Journalism Review
disputes that he ever worked for that agency. Coleman has said that he ran a DIA covert operation backing a Christian militia in Lebanon
, known as the Lebanese Forces (Samir Ghea Ghea)
, during the Lebanese Civil War
.
Coleman said he left the U.S. Embassy in Cyprus in 1988 and claims in his book that he was not engaged by the DIA again until 1990. According to him, he was told to apply for a passport using a former false identity used primarily for work with the DIA. That identity was to be a man named Thomas Leavy. In May 1990, as he prepared for his unknown job, Coleman was arrested by the FBI and charged with applying for a false passport.
In 1990 Coleman was a resident of Mobile, Alabama
. During that year a Chicago, Illinois grand jury indicted Coleman on passport fraud charges. The government accused Coleman of gaining a passport under the name of a newborn baby who died years prior to the application. According to to Redding Pitt, a federal government attorney from Montgomery, Alabama
, Coleman missed the bail hearing and appeared in Europe. While away from the United States, Coleman lived in a village in Sweden
. Coleman accused the federal government of prosecuting him to try to silence Coleman's knowledge of the crash of Pan Am Flight 103
.
and NBC News
broadcast programs that used Coleman's version of the Pan Am incident; the stories did not name specific sources. 18 months later, on April 20, 1992, TIME
published a story on Pan Am 103, titled "Pan Am 103 Why Did They Die?," using Coleman's version of the events and directly naming Coleman as a source. After the publication of the article, Steven Emerson, an investigative reporter for CNN
, wrote a story for the Washington Journalism Review criticizing the Time story. The Time article that used Coleman's thesis included a photograph of Michael Schafer, a 39-year old man from Atlanta; Coleman said that the photograph of Schafer represented a CIA double agent, David Lovejoy. Schafer had worked for Coleman in Beirut
for six months in 1985, and Schafer was the best man at Coleman's wedding. After Schafer was recognized, Coleman said that he was trying to expose Schafer as being the same person as Lovejoy. As a result of the publication of the photograph, a $26 million libel suit was filed against the magazine.
(DEA) operation outside of the United States and, because of incompetence on part of the DEA, were able to smuggle a bomb on Pan Am 103. Coleman said "No one knows what is really going on. If they ever did, it would make Watergate look like Alice in Wonderland." In the book Coleman accused Hurley of being the primary figure of responsibility of a coverup of the actual causes of the crash; Coleman also accused Martz and another Atlanta Journal-Constitution journalist, Lloyd M. Burchette, Jr., of being involved in a coverup. In the book Coleman also claims he sought, and was granted, political sanctuary
in Sweden
and further claims in the book that after he was under Swedish protection he provided Pan American World Airways
with a civil affidavit which cleared Pan Am of full responsibility for the Pan Am Lockerbie bombing.
Bloomsbury
published Coleman's book in the United Kingdom. Christopher Byron of New Yorker said that Coleman chose to have the book published in the UK because "negative publicity ruined the book market for him in the U.S." Byron said that attempts by Bloomsbury to sell the book in the United States "seem to have failed." A spokesperson for Bloomsbury stated that she had "complete confidence" in Coleman's statements. According to Byron, after a series of interviews with people mentioned in the book, he could not find any who had been contacted by Bloomsbury about their role in the book.
Hurley sued Bloomsbury in a London
court. The DEA head and the book's publisher agreed to settle. The settlement papers of the publishers stated that remaining copies of the book had been destroyed. In addition, The Mobile Register stated that the book publishers admitted that Coleman's statements against Hurley had no truth and paid Hurley's legal fees and an additional undisclosed sum.
As of 2010 the book is published by Kindle & Nook Publishing.
and the families of Flight 103 victims, Lester Coleman made a sworn statement accusing the Drug Enforcement Administration
of allowing PA103 to be bombed; his allegations were reported internationally. The federal court imposed a gag order
on the defendants and plaintiffs in the Pan Am case. Christopher Byron of New York
magazine said that members of the defense "appear to have repeatedly" violated the court-imposed gag. Byron argued that the Pan Am Time magazine story was possibly a leak. The lawyers of the plaintiffs complained, saying that the Time story was leaked in violation of the gag order. Lee Kriendler, the lawyer for the plaintiffs accused the defense of using the Time story to influence the jury. On July 11, 1992, the federal jury ruled that Pan Am was guilty of misconduct, in favor of the plaintiffs. In court Pan Am did not specifically mention the Coleman drug theory during the court proceedings. Kriendler said this was because "[t]hey knew we would have taken them apart if they had."
in a Pan Am 103 civil suit. Joe Boohaker, Coleman's defense attorney, said that the filing of criminal charges based on the course of a civil suit was "the most unusual thing" he had ever encountered.
Tam Dalyell
, a Labour Party
Member of Parliament
from Linlithgow
, asked the Lord Advocate
, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, to grant diplomatic immunity to Lester Coleman so he could give evidence in the Lockerbie bombing trial in Scotland. Allan Stewart
, a former Office Minister of Scotland and a Conservative Party MP for Eastwood, also said that Coleman should be granted immunity so he could testify in Scotland. The Lord Advocate rejected Dalyell's plea, saying that the Home Office and the English courts have the jurisdiction over the demand of the U.S. government's extradition demand regarding Coleman, and that the Crown Office and the Scottish Office had no authority over the case. According to Redding Pitt, Coleman called Governor of Alabama Fob James
, an acquaintance of Coleman from the 1970s, for help in his case. James helped arrange Coleman's State of Alabama-paid voluntary return to the United States. Boohaker said that James apparently knew Coleman from his radio days. Upon Coleman's return, federal agents in Atlanta, Georgia
arrested Coleman.
On Thursday September 11, 1997, Coleman pleaded guilty to the five counts of perjury and signed a public apology. Coleman's plea agreement stated that his claim that the U.S. defense and intelligence agencies authorized him to obtain a false passport was not true, that he lied in his Pan Am testimony in order to bolster his image as an international security and terrorism consultant and to obtain money, and that he wanted revenge against the DEA because the DEA had fired him. Coleman's prosecutors recommended a sentence of time served, five months in prison, and six months of home confinement. Coleman's highest possible sentence could have been 25 years in prison. In 1998 he was sentenced to three years of supervised release. In addition federal district court judge Thomas Platt fined Coleman $30,000. By that year Coleman became a morning talk show host in a Lexington, Kentucky
radio station.
In 1999 The Sunday Times
reported that Coleman's perjury conviction had been overturned by a United States court of appeals
and that judges issued a sealed ruling so the rationale on why Coleman's perjury conviction was overturned is not visible to the public. The paper also stated that Coleman filed an action against the federal government for $10 million.
convicted Coleman of the 36 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument; he was not convicted on the count of being a persistent felony offender. The jury recommended a four year prison sentence.
In 2000 Coleman received a 10 year prison sentence from the state, and for that he was immediately put on state probation. Coleman was transferred into federal custody because the federal government had accused him of violating the terms of his probation regarding his perjury conviction. Lester Coleman, Federal Bureau of Prisons
(BOP)#47321-019, was released from BOP custody on December 7, 2000. In May 2003 Coleman was arrested in Panama City, Florida
, his hometown. On Friday May 23, 2003, Coleman admitted in the Fayette Circuit Court that he had violated the terms of his state probation by leaving the state without the probation officer's permission and not paying restitution to his victims who individually lost over $10,000. Thomas Clark, the circuit judge, immediately sent Coleman to prison.
In 2004 Coleman, in a federal court, sued the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Fayette County, Kentucky commonwealth attorney Ray Larson, and Mayor of Lexington "Rebecca" Isaac, accusing them of violating his constitutional rights. Coleman said that judge Clark had violated his rights by giving him 10 years instead of the jury's recommended four; Coleman did not mention the probation that the judge had included in the sentence. One week after Coleman filed the suit, Joseph M. Hood, the district court judge, dismissed Coleman's suit without taking input from any of the defendants because he found Coleman's suit to be severely deficient. Hood said that Coleman failed to demonstrate that legal necessities needed to pursue his claim had existed; a declaration from a state tribunal that Coleman's conviction was invalid or a federal writ of habeas corpus would have been filed that challenges the conviction would have fulfilled the requirement. Hood also said that Coleman failed to demonstrate how Isaac, Larson, and others had anything to do with his sentencing.
said "I had contact with Les Coleman 10 years ago. In my opinion, though he has a chequered history, I take him seriously." Daniel Cohen, the father of Pan Am 103 victim Theodora Cohen, said that Coleman was a "conman."
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
(DEA) Coleman further alleged that a compromised American covert drug-operation allowed Iranian-backed terrorists – the PFLP-GC, led by Ahmed Jibril
Ahmed Jibril
Ahmed Jibril is the founder and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command , part of the left-wing, Palestinian national liberation movement....
– to slip a Semtex
Semtex
Semtex is a general-purpose plastic explosive containing RDX and PETN. It is used in commercial blasting, demolition, and in certain military applications. Semtex became notoriously popular with terrorists because it was, until recently, extremely difficult to detect, as in the case of Pan Am...
bomb aboard the plane. On September 11, 1997, Coleman stated to a New York Federal court that "...he lied when he claimed that a secret drug sting enabled terrorists to evade airport security in the bombing..." In a plea agreement, Coleman was sentenced to time served, which was five months, and six months' home confinement under electronic monitoring. Conspiracy theories alleging that the federal convictions of Lester Coleman were an effort to silence him and to hide the truth about Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...
circulated around the internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
Background
Coleman's hometown was Panama City, FloridaPanama City, Florida
-Personal income:The median income for a household in the city was $31,572, and the median income for a family was $40,890. Males had a median income of $30,401 versus $21,431 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,830...
. Coleman, who lived in Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, once served as a news director for WSGN radio in Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
, and White House Correspondent for RKO Network, before joining CBS News in Beirut in 1984. In the 1970s and early 1980s Coleman worked in several local newspaper and television departments. In 1985 he worked as a correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network
Christian Broadcasting Network
The Christian Broadcasting Network, or CBN, is a fundamentalist Christian television broadcasting network in the United States. Its headquarters and main studios are in Virginia Beach, Virginia.-Background:...
in the Middle East. CBN later closed its Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
bureau, and Coleman was no longer employed by CBN. He also worked as a public relations employee of the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
in Chicago.
According to Atlanta Journal-Constitution journalist Ron Martz, in the 1980s, Lester Coleman frequently traveled through Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East and worked as a journalist, primarily in television. Coleman had a Lebanese wife. According to Martz, Coleman frequently used the pseudonym "Collin Knox" while publishing some works. Tom Silewski, the managing editor of Soldier of Fortune
Soldier of Fortune (magazine)
Soldier of Fortune , The Journal of Professional Adventurers, is a periodical monthly magazine devoted to world-wide reporting of wars, including conventional warfare, low-intensity warfare, counter insurgency, and counter-terrorism...
magazine, said that Coleman used the alias Colin Knox when writing two stories for the magazine. Michael Hurley, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
's (DEA) operations in Nicosia
Nicosia
Nicosia from , known locally as Lefkosia , is the capital and largest city in Cyprus, as well as its main business center. Nicosia is the only divided capital in the world, with the southern and the northern portions divided by a Green Line...
, Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, said that Coleman worked as an overseas informant for the DEA. Joe Boohaker, a Birmingham, Alabama man who served as Coleman's defense attorney, said that Coleman worked for Defense Intelligence Agency
Defense Intelligence Agency
The Defense Intelligence Agency is a member of the Intelligence Community of the United States, and is the central producer and manager of military intelligence for the United States Department of Defense, employing over 16,500 U.S. military and civilian employees worldwide...
and checked on the DEA's operations.
Pan American 103 statements
Although the TimeTime (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine article on the crash of Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...
, "Pan Am 103 Why Did They Die?," states that Coleman was a Defense Intelligence Agency
Defense Intelligence Agency
The Defense Intelligence Agency is a member of the Intelligence Community of the United States, and is the central producer and manager of military intelligence for the United States Department of Defense, employing over 16,500 U.S. military and civilian employees worldwide...
(DIA) agent, a later article in the American Journalism Review
American Journalism Review
The American Journalism Review is a U.S. magazine covering topics in journalism. It is published six times a year by the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park. The AJR has been owned since the late 1980s by a foundation of the university...
disputes that he ever worked for that agency. Coleman has said that he ran a DIA covert operation backing a Christian militia in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, known as the Lebanese Forces (Samir Ghea Ghea)
Lebanese Forces
The Lebanese Forces is a Lebanese political party. Founded as a militia by Bachir Gemayel during the Lebanese Civil War, the movement fought as the main militia within the Christian-dominated Lebanese Front...
, during the Lebanese Civil War
Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...
.
Coleman said he left the U.S. Embassy in Cyprus in 1988 and claims in his book that he was not engaged by the DIA again until 1990. According to him, he was told to apply for a passport using a former false identity used primarily for work with the DIA. That identity was to be a man named Thomas Leavy. In May 1990, as he prepared for his unknown job, Coleman was arrested by the FBI and charged with applying for a false passport.
In 1990 Coleman was a resident of Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
. During that year a Chicago, Illinois grand jury indicted Coleman on passport fraud charges. The government accused Coleman of gaining a passport under the name of a newborn baby who died years prior to the application. According to to Redding Pitt, a federal government attorney from Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
, Coleman missed the bail hearing and appeared in Europe. While away from the United States, Coleman lived in a village in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. Coleman accused the federal government of prosecuting him to try to silence Coleman's knowledge of the crash of Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...
.
ABC and NBC programs and TIME article
In October 1990, ABC NewsABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
and NBC News
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
broadcast programs that used Coleman's version of the Pan Am incident; the stories did not name specific sources. 18 months later, on April 20, 1992, TIME
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
published a story on Pan Am 103, titled "Pan Am 103 Why Did They Die?," using Coleman's version of the events and directly naming Coleman as a source. After the publication of the article, Steven Emerson, an investigative reporter for CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, wrote a story for the Washington Journalism Review criticizing the Time story. The Time article that used Coleman's thesis included a photograph of Michael Schafer, a 39-year old man from Atlanta; Coleman said that the photograph of Schafer represented a CIA double agent, David Lovejoy. Schafer had worked for Coleman in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
for six months in 1985, and Schafer was the best man at Coleman's wedding. After Schafer was recognized, Coleman said that he was trying to expose Schafer as being the same person as Lovejoy. As a result of the publication of the photograph, a $26 million libel suit was filed against the magazine.
Trail of the Octopus
Coleman and Donald Goddard co-wrote Trail of the Octopus, which received its United Kingdom publication in 1993 and its first United States publication in 2009. Coleman wrote that terrorists had infiltrated a Drug Enforcement AdministrationDrug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
(DEA) operation outside of the United States and, because of incompetence on part of the DEA, were able to smuggle a bomb on Pan Am 103. Coleman said "No one knows what is really going on. If they ever did, it would make Watergate look like Alice in Wonderland." In the book Coleman accused Hurley of being the primary figure of responsibility of a coverup of the actual causes of the crash; Coleman also accused Martz and another Atlanta Journal-Constitution journalist, Lloyd M. Burchette, Jr., of being involved in a coverup. In the book Coleman also claims he sought, and was granted, political sanctuary
Sanctuary
A sanctuary is any place of safety. They may be categorized into human and non-human .- Religious sanctuary :A religious sanctuary can be a sacred place , or a consecrated area of a church or temple around its tabernacle or altar.- Sanctuary as a sacred place :#Sanctuary as a sacred place:#:In...
in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and further claims in the book that after he was under Swedish protection he provided Pan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991...
with a civil affidavit which cleared Pan Am of full responsibility for the Pan Am Lockerbie bombing.
Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury
-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...
published Coleman's book in the United Kingdom. Christopher Byron of New Yorker said that Coleman chose to have the book published in the UK because "negative publicity ruined the book market for him in the U.S." Byron said that attempts by Bloomsbury to sell the book in the United States "seem to have failed." A spokesperson for Bloomsbury stated that she had "complete confidence" in Coleman's statements. According to Byron, after a series of interviews with people mentioned in the book, he could not find any who had been contacted by Bloomsbury about their role in the book.
Hurley sued Bloomsbury in a London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
court. The DEA head and the book's publisher agreed to settle. The settlement papers of the publishers stated that remaining copies of the book had been destroyed. In addition, The Mobile Register stated that the book publishers admitted that Coleman's statements against Hurley had no truth and paid Hurley's legal fees and an additional undisclosed sum.
As of 2010 the book is published by Kindle & Nook Publishing.
Pan Am civil suit
In 1991, as part of a civil suit between Pan American World AirwaysPan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991...
and the families of Flight 103 victims, Lester Coleman made a sworn statement accusing the Drug Enforcement Administration
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
of allowing PA103 to be bombed; his allegations were reported internationally. The federal court imposed a gag order
Gag order
A gag order is an order, sometimes a legal order by a court or government, other times a private order by an employer or other institution, restricting information or comment from being made public.Gag orders are often used against participants involved in a lawsuit or criminal trial...
on the defendants and plaintiffs in the Pan Am case. Christopher Byron of New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine said that members of the defense "appear to have repeatedly" violated the court-imposed gag. Byron argued that the Pan Am Time magazine story was possibly a leak. The lawyers of the plaintiffs complained, saying that the Time story was leaked in violation of the gag order. Lee Kriendler, the lawyer for the plaintiffs accused the defense of using the Time story to influence the jury. On July 11, 1992, the federal jury ruled that Pan Am was guilty of misconduct, in favor of the plaintiffs. In court Pan Am did not specifically mention the Coleman drug theory during the court proceedings. Kriendler said this was because "[t]hey knew we would have taken them apart if they had."
Perjury charges, extradition, plea agreement
The U.S. government indicted Coleman on perjury charges, accusing him of making false statements in an affidavit supporting Pan Am's claims against the Federal Government of the United StatesFederal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
in a Pan Am 103 civil suit. Joe Boohaker, Coleman's defense attorney, said that the filing of criminal charges based on the course of a civil suit was "the most unusual thing" he had ever encountered.
Tam Dalyell
Tam Dalyell
Sir Thomas Dalyell Loch, 11th Baronet , known as Tam Dalyell, is a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005, first for West Lothian and then for Linlithgow.-Early life:...
, a Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
from Linlithgow
Linlithgow
Linlithgow is a Royal Burgh in West Lothian, Scotland. An ancient town, it lies south of its two most prominent landmarks: Linlithgow Palace and Linlithgow Loch, and north of the Union Canal....
, asked the Lord Advocate
Lord Advocate
Her Majesty's Advocate , known as the Lord Advocate , is the chief legal officer of the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for both civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolved powers of the Scottish Parliament...
, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, to grant diplomatic immunity to Lester Coleman so he could give evidence in the Lockerbie bombing trial in Scotland. Allan Stewart
Allan Stewart
Allan Stewart is a Scottish comic and impressionist born 11 December 1950.-Career:His career began in the 1960s when he performed as a cabaret pop singer and musician....
, a former Office Minister of Scotland and a Conservative Party MP for Eastwood, also said that Coleman should be granted immunity so he could testify in Scotland. The Lord Advocate rejected Dalyell's plea, saying that the Home Office and the English courts have the jurisdiction over the demand of the U.S. government's extradition demand regarding Coleman, and that the Crown Office and the Scottish Office had no authority over the case. According to Redding Pitt, Coleman called Governor of Alabama Fob James
Fob James
Forrest Hood James, Jr., known as Fob James , is an American politician, a civil engineer, and an all-American half-back...
, an acquaintance of Coleman from the 1970s, for help in his case. James helped arrange Coleman's State of Alabama-paid voluntary return to the United States. Boohaker said that James apparently knew Coleman from his radio days. Upon Coleman's return, federal agents in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
arrested Coleman.
On Thursday September 11, 1997, Coleman pleaded guilty to the five counts of perjury and signed a public apology. Coleman's plea agreement stated that his claim that the U.S. defense and intelligence agencies authorized him to obtain a false passport was not true, that he lied in his Pan Am testimony in order to bolster his image as an international security and terrorism consultant and to obtain money, and that he wanted revenge against the DEA because the DEA had fired him. Coleman's prosecutors recommended a sentence of time served, five months in prison, and six months of home confinement. Coleman's highest possible sentence could have been 25 years in prison. In 1998 he was sentenced to three years of supervised release. In addition federal district court judge Thomas Platt fined Coleman $30,000. By that year Coleman became a morning talk show host in a Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
radio station.
In 1999 The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
reported that Coleman's perjury conviction had been overturned by a United States court of appeals
United States courts of appeals
The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal court system...
and that judges issued a sealed ruling so the rationale on why Coleman's perjury conviction was overturned is not visible to the public. The paper also stated that Coleman filed an action against the federal government for $10 million.
State charges, federal and state incarceration
In 2000, the State of Kentucky charged Coleman with 36 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument and one count of being a persistent felony offender. The forged instrument charges originate from the state's accusation that Coleman used his computer to print forged checks and stole money from the Central Bank and two individuals. On March 16, 2000, a jury in Fayette County, KentuckyFayette County, Kentucky
Fayette County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The population was 295,083 in the 2010 Census. Its territory, population and government are coextensive with the city of Lexington, which also serves as county seat....
convicted Coleman of the 36 counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument; he was not convicted on the count of being a persistent felony offender. The jury recommended a four year prison sentence.
In 2000 Coleman received a 10 year prison sentence from the state, and for that he was immediately put on state probation. Coleman was transferred into federal custody because the federal government had accused him of violating the terms of his probation regarding his perjury conviction. Lester Coleman, Federal Bureau of Prisons
Federal Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is a federal law enforcement agency subdivision of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system also handles prisoners who committed acts considered felonies under the District of Columbia's...
(BOP)#47321-019, was released from BOP custody on December 7, 2000. In May 2003 Coleman was arrested in Panama City, Florida
Panama City, Florida
-Personal income:The median income for a household in the city was $31,572, and the median income for a family was $40,890. Males had a median income of $30,401 versus $21,431 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,830...
, his hometown. On Friday May 23, 2003, Coleman admitted in the Fayette Circuit Court that he had violated the terms of his state probation by leaving the state without the probation officer's permission and not paying restitution to his victims who individually lost over $10,000. Thomas Clark, the circuit judge, immediately sent Coleman to prison.
In 2004 Coleman, in a federal court, sued the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Fayette County, Kentucky commonwealth attorney Ray Larson, and Mayor of Lexington "Rebecca" Isaac, accusing them of violating his constitutional rights. Coleman said that judge Clark had violated his rights by giving him 10 years instead of the jury's recommended four; Coleman did not mention the probation that the judge had included in the sentence. One week after Coleman filed the suit, Joseph M. Hood, the district court judge, dismissed Coleman's suit without taking input from any of the defendants because he found Coleman's suit to be severely deficient. Hood said that Coleman failed to demonstrate that legal necessities needed to pursue his claim had existed; a declaration from a state tribunal that Coleman's conviction was invalid or a federal writ of habeas corpus would have been filed that challenges the conviction would have fulfilled the requirement. Hood also said that Coleman failed to demonstrate how Isaac, Larson, and others had anything to do with his sentencing.
Reception
Tam DalyellTam Dalyell
Sir Thomas Dalyell Loch, 11th Baronet , known as Tam Dalyell, is a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005, first for West Lothian and then for Linlithgow.-Early life:...
said "I had contact with Les Coleman 10 years ago. In my opinion, though he has a chequered history, I take him seriously." Daniel Cohen, the father of Pan Am 103 victim Theodora Cohen, said that Coleman was a "conman."
External links
- "Letters - Coleman Defends Himself and Response" American Journalism ReviewAmerican Journalism ReviewThe American Journalism Review is a U.S. magazine covering topics in journalism. It is published six times a year by the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park. The AJR has been owned since the late 1980s by a foundation of the university...
, November 1992.