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ww oe Nee ' Response of District Attorney Busch, June 1974 In a letter to Supervisor Peter Schabarum, District Attorney Busch stated that he thoroughly deplored Supervisor Ward's entire course of conduct in his May, 1974, hearing. He stated that Ward had acted outside the scope of his jurisdiction under the guise of conducting Board business to initiate an allegedly impartial ‘inquiry into the Sirhan matter. Additionally, Busch felt that Ward's hearing was a skillfully drafted scenario designed to estab- lish predetermined findings and conclusions that the Lcs Angeles Police Department and/or the District Attorney's Office failed to thoroughly investigate the possibility of a second gunman, if not actually engaged in techniques to cover-up such a possibility. In short, Busch felt that Ward had unjustifiably shaken publie confi- dence in both of the law enforcement agencies. Busch further stated that the Ward hearing lacked all the characteristics of the adversary process, and was specifically designed to provide no.-zportunity for anyone to cross examine any of the witnesses, who:e- appearance and testimony was carefully orchestrated, Moreover, Busch felt that the inherent weakness in the Ward procedure was the selectivity in presentation of issues and the projection of an image or impression which had no basis in fact. Busch was extremely critical of Ward for creating the "illusion of the possibility of a second gun." Busch felt an obvious starting point was to create a conflict between eyewitness accounts and physical evidence regarding muzzle distance. Busch felt that whenever a number of persons see an event, it is axiomatic that there will be different accounts in regard to different detail. Furthermore, when, placed in the context of a victory cele- bration at the conclusien of a long day, the probability of discrepancy is enhanced. Thus, in such a situation, Busch felt it was relatively easy to select a few witnesses whose recollection was inconsistent with irrefutable evidence. Busch continued, in his letter to Schabarum, that, "In order to implement this cornerstone of his strategy, Mr. Ward created the image of conflict by placing into the record very brief portions of Statements by three persons. ‘When these statements were compared with the statements of the Coroner, which is precisely the same testimony given by the Coroner during the Sirhan trial, Busch felt a conflict was readily produced. But the existence of such conflict required one to assume that these three isolated accounts fairly represented the statements of the many other persons who witnessed the tragedy. Nevertheless, Busch concluded that Ward, by this technique, laid the ground for further inquiry regarding the Physical evidence. Busch also expressed his displeasure in that the Ward hearing raised questions as to what the prosecution failed to do with respect to its investigation of physical evidence. Busch felt that such a technique might have the purpose of disclosing ineptitude, but that it also raised a question when no question in fact existed. To Busch, this represented a smoke . screen of irrelevent issues. - 37 -