Lawyers at Little Nashville Opry arson trial haggle over unrecorded comment

Jan. 30--NASHVILLE -- Jurors were sent to lunch early today as lawyers in James Bowyer's arson trial haggled over a comment the accused man may have made during an interrogation by federal investigators a week after fire destroyed the Little Nashville Opry.

Defense attorney John Boren was upset that Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents did not record interviews during the investigation and instead relied on notes generated during the sessions. The interviews were conducted at the Brown County Sheriff's Department in rooms equipped with audio and video recording devices.

Mark Geever, an ATF agent brought in as part of a national response team in the days after the fire, said he and the lead investigator agreed to not record interviews.

Geever's report, but not his hand-written notes, included a statement Geever said Bowyer made in the hallway during a break indicating he may have been the last to leave the Opry the night of the fire. "He told us he left when the band and sound engineers did, and drove around back to, in his words, 'take a leak,' " he said.

"And we're supposed to trust your memory?" Boren asked. "Yes," Geever responded.

He also said Bowyer told him that although there was no formal agreement, Opry owner Esther Hamilton had "hinted" she would pay him four years in back salary, about $100,000 total, when the Opry was sold. A sale was pending when the 2,000-seat country music hall burned Sept. 19, 2009.

Joel Abbey, an investigator with Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., which held the policy for the Opry, said Hamilton initially told him that when Bowyer started managing the place for her in 2006, she told him she could not afford to pay him. "If you're coming for the money, don't, because I just can't do it," he quoted Hamilton as saying.

But in a later interview, Hamilton told Abbey she thought it would only be fair to reimburse Bowyer for his time spent overseeing the business.

This story will be updated.

___

(c)2014 the Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.)

Visit the Herald-Times (Bloomington, Ind.) at www.heraldtimesonline.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services