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Pipe Bomb Builder's Lawyer: Weapon Was ‘Inoperable'

The attorney for a central Pennsylvania man awaiting trial on charges he built a remote-controlled pipe bomb intended to blow up his wife's paramour says the device was inoperable.

WJAC-TV reports the defense attorney for 53-year-old Frederick Rice, of Harrisburg, raised that issue at a pretrial conference Tuesday in Centre County.

Rice faces charges including manufacturing a weapon of mass destruction.

Police say they determined Rice was fixated on his wife's suspected infidelity when someone tipped them off that Rice had the bomb in his vehicle while visiting a friend in Ferguson Township on Aug. 5.

Police say Rice acknowledged having the bomb and planned to attach it to the paramour's vehicle and detonate it.

But now the defense plans to prove the bomb wouldn't have worked.

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