http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...rnment/2012/03/27/gIQAf UYVeS_story.html Mich. militia members cleared of charges that accused them of plotting war against governmentBy Associated Press, Published: March 27
DETROIT — A federal judge on Tuesday gutted the government’s case against seven members of a Michigan militia, dismissing the most serious charges in an extraordinary defeat for federal authorities who insisted they had captured homegrown rural extremists poised for war.
U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said the members’ expressed hatred of law enforcement didn’t amount to a conspiracy to rebel against the government. The FBI had secretly planted an informant and an FBI agent inside the Hutaree militia starting in 2008 to collect hours of anti-government audio and video that became the cornerstone of the case.
A federal judge in Michigan has dismissed conspiracy charges and gutted the government's case against seven members of a U.S. militia who prosecutors said were homegrown extremists poised for war.
A federal judge in Michigan has dismissed conspiracy charges and gutted the government's case against seven members of a U.S. militia who prosecutors said were homegrown extremists poised for war.
“The court is aware that protected speech and mere words can be sufficient to show a conspiracy. In this case, however, they do not rise to that level,” the judge said on the second anniversary of raids and arrests that broke up the group.
Roberts granted requests for acquittal on the most serious charges: conspiring to commit sedition, or rebellion, against the U.S. and conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. Other weapons crimes tied to the alleged conspiracies also were dismissed.
“The judge had a lot of guts,” defense attorney William Swor said. “It would have been very easy to say, ‘The heck with it,’ and hand it off to the jury. But the fact is she looked at the evidence, and she looked at it very carefully.”
The trial, which began Feb. 13, will resume Thursday with only a few gun charges remaining against militia leader David Stone and son Joshua Stone, both from Lenawee County, Mich. They have been in custody without bond for two years.
Prosecutors said Hutaree members were anti-government rebels who combined training and strategy sessions to prepare for a violent strike against federal law enforcement, triggered first by the slaying of a police officer.
But there never was an attack. Defense lawyers said highly offensive remarks about police and the government were wrongly turned into a high-profile criminal case that drew public praise from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who in 2010 called Hutaree a “dangerous organization.”
David Stone’s “statements and exercises do not evince a concrete agreement to forcibly resist the authority of the United States government,” Roberts said Tuesday. “His diatribes evince nothing more than his own hatred for — perhaps even desire to fight or kill — law enforcement; this is not the same as seditious conspiracy.”
U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade declined to comment. Two years ago, when militia members were arrested, she said it was time to “take them down.”
The FBI had put a local informant, Dan Murray, inside the militia in 2008 and paid him $31,000. An FBI agent from New Jersey also was embedded. Steve Haug, known as “Jersey Steve,” posed as a trucker and spent months secretly recording talks with Stone. He even served as Stone’s best man at his wedding, a celebration with militia members wearing military fatigues.
Haug repeatedly talked to Stone about building pipe bombs and getting other sophisticated explosives. The FBI rented a warehouse in Ann Arbor where the agent would invite him and others to store and discuss weapons.
Haug told jurors he was “shocked” by Stone’s knowledge of explosives, noting it matched some of his own instruction as a federal agent.
Stone was recorded saying he was willing to kill police and even their families. He considered them part of a “brotherhood” — a sinister global authority that included federal law enforcers and United Nations troops.
He had bizarre beliefs: Stone suspected Germany and Singapore had aircraft stationed in Texas, and thousands of Canadian troops were poised to take over Michigan. He said the government put computer chips in a flu vaccine.
He had a speech prepared for a regional militia gathering in Kentucky in 2010, but bad weather forced him and others to return to Michigan. Instead, he read it in the van while a secret camera installed by the FBI captured the remarks.
“It is time to strike and take our nation back so that we may be free again from tyranny,” Stone said. “Time is up, God bless all of you and welcome to the new revolution.”
Swor said Stone is a Christian who was bracing for war against the Antichrist.
“This is not the United States government. This is Satan’s army,” Swor told the judge Monday, referring to the enemy.
Militia members cleared of all charges were Stone’s wife, Tina Stone, and his son, David Stone Jr.; Thomas Piatek of Whiting, Ind.; Michael Meeks of Manchester, Mich.; and Kris Sickles of Sandusky, Ohio.
“It’s hard to believe it’s over,” said Tina Stone, crying as she spoke by phone. “Thank God we live in a country where we do have freedom of speech.”
Joshua Clough of Blissfield, Mich., pleaded guilty to a weapons charge in December and awaits his sentence. Jacob Ward of Huron, Ohio, will have a separate trial.
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http://www.twitter.com/edwhiteAP Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Comments
McKDave
8:30 AM PST
“It is time to strike and take our nation back so that we may be free again from tyranny,” Stone said. “Time is up, God bless all of you and welcome to the new revolution.” Call me crazy, but in spite of his attorney's rather ridiculous claim that the statement was about Satan, this clearly was a call for violent revolution. Still, the government should have waited for a specific plot before making arrests. It's hard to convict someone just for flapping their gums. On balance, justice was done b...See More
8:56 AM PST
Sadly, youre right, and Ive met this kind of people, they are truly off the rails kooks. They fall for conspiracy theories due to a lack of education. I know why its absolutely impossible for a satellite to read a chip in someones arm, I have an engineering background, but they dont, and worse yet, and what seals the deal, anyone who attempts to correct them is a Government conspirator.
And Patriots. They (thats being general) want to ponce off to the woods and build survival camps so they dont e...See More
rlroll2
9:05 AM PST
The Rev Wright, Louis Farakhan, Hispanic faculty at UCLA and thousands of others white, black, yellow and red preach this crap publicly on a daily basis. Beer-drinking, uneducated rednecks stroking their own egos is a joke, a sad joke, but a joke nonetheless. One hundred and thirty thousand armed gang members in LA, not so much. Wonder where the ATF and FBI are? Start with the fifty agents tracking a happless white hillby and killing his wife and son at Ruby Ridge and follow the trail from there...See More
edbyronadams
7:33 AM PST
The internals of this investigation would be interesting. The FBI has busted some domestic Muslims who they enticed into a bombing conspiracy. It would be surprising, especially with the publicly acknowledged bomb talk if they didn't try it on this bunch of nuts. From the charges, they didn't bite.
7:40 AM PST
Eric holder and his nitwits simply have a different view of our legal system rooted in something other than the constitution ...I would say totalitariansim
reformthesystem
7:12 AM PST
Federal government employees, that are no longer required to have law school educations to get their jobs, spent lots of valuable resources on this dredging up of political speech expressed in private and not substantially acted on. Their effort appears to have consumed a lot of money that came from taxpayers. The approximate amount needs to be publicly reported.
7:23 AM PST
what about state and local police investigations that end up with acquitals or no bills? should those expenses used in the course of an investigation also be disclosed publicly?
8:37 AM PST
incompetence!
I'm for smart people. You don't need a law degree to figure out this was a waste of resources from the beginning. They had undercovers investigating them for YEARS! No smart person in charge would have let that pass a few weeks.
Meanwhile, Goldman and the Banksters keep raking in the cash.
8:56 AM PST
"They have been in custody without bond for two years."
Hope they sue the government and name Holder in the lawsuit.
