Today, nearly 38 years after an assassination attempt on President Gerald R. Ford in Sacramento, a federal judge has allowed the release of a largely unseen relic of the incident: the videotaped testimony Ford gave that would later be used in the trial of Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme.
The case was the first in history featuring oral testimony from a sitting president in a criminal trial.
The 20 minutes of testimony, which Ford gave in room 345 of the Old Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House on Nov. 1, 1975, was conducted at the request of Sacramento defense attorney John Virga and portions were played for jurors during Fromme's trial.
In his testimony, Ford calmly described seeing a woman in a bright red dress at Capitol Park and thinking she was drawing near to shake his hand.
"My first impression was that she wanted to come closer and extend - I thought at the time - a hand to shake, or to say something to me," Ford says on the tape.
Then, he said, he noticed the gun, a .45-caliber Colt automatic pistol, adding that "the weapon was large."
The tape, which includes several minutes of audio discussion among lawyers and the judge before and after Ford's testimony, was later sealed and has been largely forgotten and removed from public view in the years since.
The release of the tape for widespread public viewing is the result of a motion filed last month by the Eastern District Historical Society, a 12-year-old non-profit dedicated to preserving the history of the federal court based in Sacramento.
The society petitioned U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller for the tape's release "to preserve the historically significant deposition." The Bee also intervened in the case.
The federal government did not object to the requests, and Mueller issued an order allowing the tape to be copied to DVD "to preserve the deposition for perpetuity."
Mueller's order allowed historical society lawyer Michael Vinding to pick up the tape from the federal courthouse downtown accompanied by Secret Service special agent Brian J. Korbs. From there, the tape was delivered to Sacramento videographer Patrick Kuske to copy it to DVD "without damage or alteration."
Fromme was arrested Sept. 5, 1975 after approaching Ford in the park and pulling a pistol out from under her robe.
The gun didn't go off, and Fromme was wrestled to the ground by a Secret Service agent, a Sacramento police officer and bystanders.
She was convicted of attempting to assassinate the president on Nov. 26, 1975. After 30 years in prison, the government was required to hold a parole hearing and she won her release in 2009. She now lives near Utica, N.Y.
Ford died at his home in Rancho Mirage on Dec. 26, 2006, at the age of 93.
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