Matteucci Key Figure In Big Cases
With the freemen behind bars and the suspected Unabomber soon to be taken to California, maybe Sherry Scheel Matteucci can catch her breath.
Montana’s U.S. attorney, the state’s top federal prosecutor, has found the past several months to be the toughest of her career. A former private practice lawyer with little criminal law experience, Matteucci has been a key figure in two of the most closely watched criminal cases in America.
“Well, I’m certainly breathing easier now because we’re out of the most dangerous parts of the situations,” Matteucci said in a telephone interview with the Lee Newspapers State Bureau.
Last week’s surrender by the freemen marked a peaceful end to an armed 82-day standoff with the FBI. During nearly three months of negotiations with the anti-government radicals, Matteucci said there were many tense moments when she worried the standoff might not end the way it did.
She is reluctant to discuss specifics, since the freemen now face proceedings in court.
But Matteucci bristles when asked if all the shots were called from Washington, D.C., by Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh.
“Hundreds and hundreds of decisions had to be made,” she said. “Not all of them involved Janet Reno and Louis Freeh. All of them involved me.”
While federal officials have been subject to criticism because they took months to move on the freemen, those who monitored the situation say they had no doubt about Matteucci’s resolve.
“She has never been one to pooh-pooh this stuff and say it’s not important,” said Ken Toole, director of the Montana Human Rights Network. “She really does understand that when these anti-government groups engage in criminal activity, it’s something to be taken seriously.”
Matteucci, who heads Montana’s staff of a dozen U.S. attorneys, was working on the freemen case for more than a year before the standoff began March 25.
As if that high-profile case weren’t enough, Matteucci was notified this winter that the FBI had found a suspect in the Unabom killings: Theodore Kaczynski, a hermit who lived near Lincoln.
“She is at the vortex of two very major situations, the freemen case and the Kaczynski case,” said U.S. Justice Department spokesman Carl Stern. “And she certainly has her arms around the cases in her district.”
Kaczynski is likely to be moved to Sacramento, Calif., this week, where he’s been indicted on charges related to the Unabom killings. Matteucci’s office will continue to be part of the prosecution team.
“His activities involve Montana to a large degree,” Matteucci said.
Matteucci, 48, is described by Stern and others as fair-minded and practical. Those who work for her say she gets more involved in cases than past U.S. attorneys. Some attorneys describe her as “emotional.”
U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, the Democrat who recommended Matteucci for the job three years ago to President Clinton, called her “a credit to Montana.”