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Motorcade Map Found at House Of Bomb Suspect
By Dan Morse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 6, 2008; A01
Police found a map of Camp David marked with a presidential motorcade route inside the Bethesda home of the teenager at the center of a bombmaking probe, along with a document that appears to describe how to kill someone at a distance of 200 meters, a Montgomery County prosecutor said yesterday at a court hearing.
Collin McKenzie-Gude, 18, also had two forms of fake identification: one portraying him as a Central Intelligence Agency employee, and the other in the name of a federal contractor purportedly protected by the Geneva Conventions, authorities said.
The investigation has expanded to include officials from the CIA, FBI and Secret Service, prosecutors said. McKenzie-Gude, who is in the Montgomery County jail, faces charges that include weapons violations, possession of explosives and attempted carjacking. At the house last week, police found more than 50 pounds of chemicals, assault-style weapons and armor-piercing bullets.
The allegations revealed yesterday were the latest development in an expanding investigation that has engulfed the family of three that lives on a leafy street that a neighbor calls the "Leave It to Beaver" community.
McKenzie-Gude was considered a fine student at St. John's College High, the private school in the District from which he recently graduated. He was scheduled to start classes this fall at American University's School of International Service.
His father, Joseph Gude, 62, a retired Air Force captain who works for the Treasury Department, also was charged in the case, accused of buying guns for his son. McKenzie-Gude's mother, Debra McKenzie-Gude, holds a master's degree in social work.
"Their whole world has been turned upside down," said Steven Kupferberg, the attorney for Collin McKenzie-Gude. "Collin is the apple of their eye."
A 17-year-old St. John's student was charged as a juvenile in connection with the case. The student was not identified because of his age.
Until recently, the student worked as an intern at a Montgomery County police district station, where authorities said he stole police letterhead stationery that was used to obtain items restricted to law enforcement personnel.
Investigators said they were trying to determine the intentions of McKenzie-Gude and the St. John's student. Attorneys for McKenzie-Gude, his father and the student said their clients did not intend to hurt anyone. Kupferberg said police have rushed to judgment against McKenzie-Gude.
"Collin has never been in trouble before," Kupferberg said in court yesterday, adding that McKenzie-Gude participated in ROTC and "was never considered to be a disciplinary problem in any sense."
Rene Sandler, an attorney for the teenage student, said his client was not connected with an attempted carjacking in which McKenzie-Gude was charged.
A former teacher of the two remembered them as "quiet, good-natured students."
"They were St. John's kids. Just good kids," said Matt Feldman, who now teaches at a different private school. "There was nothing dark about them at all."
At a bond hearing yesterday, McKenzie-Gude's image was broadcast from the Montgomery jail on a courtroom video monitor. McKenzie-Gude, 5-foot-5 and 153 pounds, stood straight with his hands clasped in front of him. His parents sat in the courtroom, with his father holding four large envelopes in his lap.
Peter Feeney, Montgomery assistant state's attorney, provided no details about the Camp David map or the document on a possible long-range killing. He called the latter "a clandestine operations document which appears to describe how to kill somebody at a distance of 200 meters."
Prosecutors said that when McKenzie-Gude learned last week that detectives wanted to search his house, he panicked and drove to White Flint Mall.
At a second-level parking garage outside Bloomingdale's, authorities said, he got out of his sport-utility vehicle and walked up to a 78-year-old man trying to lock his car. McKenzie-Gude demanded the keys, police said. When the man refused, McKenzie-Gude struck the man with his elbows, knocked him to the ground and repeatedly struck him to prevent the man from standing, the arrest affidavit stated.
McKenzie-Gude took the keys from the man but could not start the car and fled, police said.
"It's unconscionable, it's inexcusable, I don't know what you want to call it, to attack a 78-year-old," said District Court Judge J. Michael Conroy, who kept McKenzie-Gude in jail at a relatively high bond of $750,000. Conroy reduced the original bond by $250,000.
McKenzie-Gude was born Oct. 22, 1989, and grew up in a house on Rockhurst Road, north of the Capital Beltway, according to a motion filed by his lawyer to reduce the bond. He attended Woods Academy in Bethesda and St. John's College High, a Catholic private school with a strong military background. At St. John's, he joined the junior ROTC and was a rifle team member.
McKenzie-Gude's father had served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, as did his grandfather, also named Joseph Gude, who served in the Army.
A source with direct knowledge of the investigation, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing, said investigators believe that McKenzie-Gude's father is a "straight shooter" who has faith in his son and was willing to buy him many things.
Roman Franklin, who was a year ahead of McKenzie-Gude at St. John's, said he remembers McKenzie-Gude as an eager student who sat in front of the U.S. government classroom, answered questions and added to the discussion. "He just seemed like an all-around good kid," said Franklin, now a student at Temple University.
At St. John's, authorities said McKenzie-Gude got to know the 17-year-old student, who was a year behind him. Sometime last year, the two tested pipebombs on three occasions in a Gaithersburg field, police said.
Ludmila S. Yevsukov, a relative of the younger student, said McKenzie-Gude made a sharp impression when she first met him -- he was confident and friendly and ended many sentences with "ma'am."
"It's like he was a little adult," Yevsukov said. "He is not a kid at all. He is completely full-formed."
In time, she said, McKenzie-Gude came to hold an outsize influence over the younger student, who she said was not as outgoing as the older boy. "He just became totally focused on Collin," Yevsukov said.
At McKenzie-Gude's home, police said they found a list of home addresses for St. John's teachers. "Some of those names were highlighted," Feeney said at the bond hearing.
Police also found "kind of a to-do list of items to be bought by October of 2008," Feeney said. The list included "equipment to convert semiautomatic rifles to fully automatic rifles," he said. The list also called for "range-finding glasses that typically are used by a sniper team."
Staff writer Steve Hendrix contributed to this report.
