Military Vehicles, March 1997,: Fort McCoy trial update

Fort McCoy trial update

MVBOATNUT@aol.com
Sun, 9 Mar 1997 21:59:20 -0500 (EST)

Military thefts tied to movie
By Kevin Murphy
Special to the Journal Sentinel
March 8, 1997
Madison -- Some of the co-defendants indicted in the theft of 150 military
vehicles from Fort McCoy
competed with each other to supply vehicles to a Hollywood company while it
was producing a Desert
Storm movie, a prosecutor said Friday in federal court.
In questioning Leo A. Piatz Jr.'s motivation for taking armored vehicles
stockpiled at the base,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Bach asked him, "Wasn't the whole idea was to
get vehicles for the
movie deal?"
Evidence in the weeklong trial alleged that Piatz, 37, of Hudson, initially
was interested in salvaging
Sherman tanks damaged during artillery practice at the western Wisconsin
base, but that he later
began taking operable equipment as well.
By late 1994, Piatz, a military surplus dealer, learned about Twentieth
Century Fox's need for military
equipment for the production of "Courage Under Fire," a 1996 release starring
Denzel Washington
and Meg Ryan.
Co-defendant David Butler, Piatz's business partner, had supplied two Cobra
helicopters to the
production, Bach said. Piatz saw the movie company as a ready customer for
the armored personnel
carriers he had been hauling from Fort McCoy to an old Nike missile base he
owned near Roberts,
Bach said.
Bach asked Piatz whether he got into competition with a former customer to
supply Army armor to
the movie company.
Bach wanted to know whether Piatz had to "ace George Pretty out of the movie
deal." The FBI found
an armored personnel carrier from Fort McCoy when searching Pretty's property
in Sturgis, Mich., in
1995.
Piatz said the movie company found other suppliers of armored personnel
carriers and said he did not
lease the company any.
Piatz, owner of Tony's Military Surplus, faces 125 years in prison and $2.75
million in fines on 11
counts ranging from bribery to conspiracy. He is one of seven men charged in
the theft.
He said Friday that he was told to keep much of the equipment as payment for
cleaning up the range
or for donating two vehicles to the base's museum.
Piatz was the last witness to testify. The trial resumes Monday morning with
closing arguments by the
defense and prosecuting attorneys.
A California man testified earlier this week that Piatz had sold him an
armored personnel carrier, a
Sheridan tank and a self-propelled howitzer for $90,000.
The five other co-defendants, including Butler, of Fairfield, Iowa, and
Pretty, are scheduled for trial in
June.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.