SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- When it was finally over, after 11 Branch Davidians were acquitted of conspiracy and murder charges, John Haring raised a glass of champagne and spoke to the bubbling assemblage that filled his home.
"Thank God Almighty," said Davidian supporter Haring, as the crowd of 30 friends fell silent, "that this awful incident has at least brought us back a little bit from a total fall into a despotic government." And then, they cheered.
But Saturday's verdict in the trial of David Koresh's followers gave the federal government little to cheer about today, the first anniversary of its botched raid on the Davidian compound near Waco.
Four Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents and six cultists died. After a 51-day siege, 80 others, including Koresh and 18 children, died in a fire after agents stormed the compound April 19.
The Waco fiasco went down as the most disastrous law enforcement raid in U.S. history.
Now, the trial that followed is being assailed as well. Legal experts say prosecutors essentially lost the case.
Jurors acquitted the 10 men and one woman of the most serious charges that stemmed from the gunfight.
Five were convicted of voluntary manslaughter and could receive 10 years in prison and a $ 250,000 fine. Two others were convicted of weapons charges. Four were acquitted of all charges.
Three of those found guilty will be deported after their prison terms, officials say. Two people who were acquitted, also will be deported.
Sentencing is expected in six to eight weeks.
"This sends a message," said defense lawyer Dan Cogdell. "You don't negotiate with tanks (or) assault a house where you have people that don't need to be assaulted, and you don't bring a case you can't prove."
Prosecutors tried to put the best face on what Myrtle Riddle - one of Koresh's wives - called "a smack in the face of the government."
"The jury acts as the conscience of the community," said lead prosecutor Ray Jahn. "They did not see the evidence as we did, but we do not second-guess the jury."
Added ATF Director John Magaw, whose predecessor was fired after the raid: "In any human effort there will be mistakes. Mistakes do not justify the mass murder that David Koresh ordered on Feb. 28 and concluded on April 19."
Despite the disappointment, experts predict few far-reaching implications.
"It's not going to affect (future government) conduct," said University of Texas law professor Robert Dawson. "I don't think the government would ever intentionally replicate that raid, so I don't think the case really has any meaning beyond its effect on the immediate participants."
Others disagree: "It basically tells law enforcement that the frontier days are over," says University of South Carolina criminologist Gene Stephens. "Some federal law enforcement agencies still have the image of the Old West, particularly ATF."
But others are not interested in Waco's effect on the future. They can only look back.
"Everyone should have been 100% guilty," said a stricken Lisa Willis, whose brother, Steve, was one of the four ATF agents slain. "No one has the right to shoot federal agents."
Defense lawyers portrayed terrorized Davidians who shot back in self-defense when ATF agents stormed their complex.
Judge Walter Smith instructed jurors they could convict defendants on lesser charges of voluntary manslaughter if they found that agents were killed unlawfully, but "in the sudden heat of passion caused by adequate provocation."
The unidentified jurors sat for eight weeks, heard 135 witnesses and saw nearly 1,500 pieces of evidence. They heard of government bungling, of how the ATF lied to the public - all laid out in two major government reports.
The jurors also heard a 911 tape in which a frantic Davidian called police during the raid and begged for help.
But, on a tape from a federal listening device inside the compound, Davidians were reportedly heard planning the fire that leveled the compound April 19. The government contended the fire was set as part of a trap to lure still more federal agents to their deaths.
Many were disturbed by the trial's outcome.
"I'm just astonished," said David Jewel, whose daughter, Kiri, 13, once lived in the compound with her mother, Sherri Jewel, who died. "How is it possible that after two months of concentrated testimony . . . a jury cannot have been made to see the conspiracy?"
Mark Spoon, who lives a few yards from the rubble of the compound and cowered in a back room during the gunfight, is worried the sect will return. "I believe in God, and not guns," he said. "And that's what their religion is about - it's God and guns, I guess, but it's the wrong God."
But the people who gathered at John Haring's house in San Antonio - where many Davidians have stayed off and on during the trial - could hardly have disagreed more.
Many expressed deep regret for the agents' deaths. But virtually all blamed the government: "A victory party? Not in any circumstances," said Rita Riddle, who left the compound midway through the siege. "If everybody in court had been acquitted, we would still have basically 100 people who lost their lives. And for what?"
