DALLAS, April 17 (UPI) -- Danny Defenbaugh, the FBI agent who led the Oklahoma City bombing investigation, announced Wednesday he will retire at the end of April, ending a 32-year FBI career.
Defenbaugh's retirement was not related to an inspector general's report last month that criticized the handling of documents in the Oklahoma investigation, according to Lori Bailey, a spokeswoman for the FBI Dallas office.
"It's just something that he has been contemplating for many weeks and he's ready to go," she said.
Defenbaugh, 50, was appointed to head the Dallas FBI office in January 1999 after winding up the Oklahoma investigation. An acting special agent in charge will be named until a permanent replacement is appointed, she said.
Defenbaugh, who is considered one of the bureau's top bomb experts, holds a master's degree in forensic science from George Washington University. He began his career as a support employee in the Washington FBI office and became an special agent in 1976. He conducted more than 150 bombing investigations during his career.
In a March 19 report, the Justice Department's inspector general criticized the handling of FBI documents in the Oklahoma bombing investigation. The failure to turn over hundreds of the documents to defense attorneys delayed Timothy McVeigh's execution last year.
In a statement, Defenbaugh accepted the criticism that pointed at "human errors" and an antiquated FBI record system.
"During the time period under review, I made decisions concerning the documents based on my honest evaluation of the situation, my many years of experience, and out of my desire to do the right thing," he said.
Defenbaugh said the investigation of the 1995 bombing, which killed 168 people, was the most intensive terrorism investigation ever carried out by the FBI at that time and it presented challenges and a "Herculean" task for the investigators.
One week before McVeigh's scheduled execution in June it was revealed that the FBI had failed to turn over more than 700 investigative files to the defense team, as required by the court. The execution was delayed a month while the documents were reviewed.
Although no records were found that would have altered the outcome of McVeigh's trial, Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered Inspector General Glenn Fine to investigate the handling of the investigative documents by the FBI.
The report determined that no one at the FBI had intentionally withheld documents from the defense lawyers, as McVeigh's attorneys had alleged.
Defenbaugh said the report's recommendations for improving the computer system and record keeping were "on target" and many of them had already been implemented at the FBI.
