Well does this really surprise anyone? They bullied them and scared millions of others and have achieved their purpose. I guess Hutaree and militia are not dirty words anymore?
Mich. militia members cleared of charges that accused them of plotting war against government
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.
“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.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/key-charges-dismissed-against-michigan-militia-members-charged-with-plotting-war-on-government/2012/03/27/gIQAfUYVeS_story.html
Sheriff: Man kicks in church side door, points shotgun
As they are before most worship services, the doors of Boiling Springs' South Side Freewill Baptist Church were open on Sunday morning.
The Rev. Henry Guyton, pastor of the church, said Jesse Gates, who has attended worship services at the church on Upper Valley Falls Road as recently as Wednesday, came to the door about 10 a.m. on Sunday.
“He came in before the service and acted like he was having a heart attack,” Guyton, 71, said. “He asked us to call Channel 7 news. I called 911 instead.”
Sheriff Chuck Wright said deputies and Spartanburg EMS arrived, and checked out Gates, and Gates left.
About 11:20 a.m., Jesse Gates returned to the church. The Rev. Guyton's grandson, Aaron Guyton, 26, was in the recreation building separate from the church and saw Gates get a shotgun from the trunk of his car.
“At that point, I knew I had to do something,” Aaron Guyton said. “I wanted to try to contain him outside.”
Aaron Guyton went into the main building and locked the doors.
Henry Guyton said he was in the pulpit, preaching about how Jesus spoke the word of God and healed the sick, when Gates kicked open the side door of the sanctuary and entered with the shotgun, pointing it at the pastor and congregation.
Church members, including Aaron Guyton, a concealed weapons permit holder, acted quickly.
Aaron Guyton held Gates at gunpoint, as church members Jesse Smith and Leland Powers held him on the floor and waited for deputies to arrive. The Rev. Guyton said he stepped onto a chair, climbed down a 3-foot bannister surrounding the pulpit and took the shotgun from Jesse Gates.
“The gun was loaded,” Henry Guyton said. “I said, ‘Jesse, what did you do it for?' He said, ‘They took my children and won't let me see them.' I'm glad the Lord took care of everything. The police did a good job too.”
No shots were fired and no one was injured, according to deputies.
During a news conference Sunday, Wright called Aaron and Henry Guyton, Jesse Smith and Leland Powers “everyday heroes.”
Charges filed
Gates, 38, has been charged with second-degree burglary (violent), disturbing a place of worship, kidnapping and three counts of pointing and presenting a firearm, Wright said. Arrest warrants state that Jesse Gates pointed the shotgun at Smith, Henry Guyton and Powers, and that he intended to kidnap the pastor.
Gates' sister, Angela Michelle Gates, 34, has been charged with accessory before the fact of a felony. Wright said Angela Gates went to the church with her brother and provided him with the shotgun he used during the incident.
Both siblings live at 115 Falcon Ridge Road, Boiling Springs, with their mother, Lt. Tony Ivey said.
Gates also had a hunting knife in his possession when he entered the church. Ivey said he was charged with violent burglary because he entered the building with deadly weapons.
Wright said that while Angela Gates has no prior criminal record, Jesse Gates' criminal history includes numerous convictions for burglary, grand larceny and forgery. He is a convicted felon and prohibited from having a gun or ammunition.
Wright said it's possible the case could be forwarded to federal authorities.
‘Protecting the worshippers'
During a news conference Sunday, Wright commended Aaron Guyton for having a concealed weapons permit.
“We're very fortunate we didn't have gruesome scenes to work there,” Wright said. “I like the fact that a concealed weapons permit holder was prepared to protect the worshippers.”
Wright made national headlines in October when a man attacked a woman at Milliken Park during the day, urging residents to obtain concealed weapons permits and arm themselves. Earlier this year, Wright praised a concealed weapons permit holder who shot and killed a would-be robber at a Waffle House on Chesnee Highway.
“I hope the bad guys are watching, because we are tired of your nonsense,” Wright said. “People are simply protecting their families. Prepare yourselves, ladies and gentlemen.”
At the same time, Wright said, he urged residents to be “good witnesses” for law enforcement, and if the situation calls for it, to retreat to their homes if they find themselves in a potentially dangerous situation.
“I don't want you to act as a deputy sheriff,” Wright said. “I don't want you to take the law into your own hands.”
‘Praying, begging'
The Gateses were interviewed at the sheriff's office and taken to the Spartanburg County Detention Facility about 3:15 p.m. Sunday.
Ivey said a magistrate judge was expected to deny bond for the siblings, and that investigators have requested formal bond hearings for them, which will be conducted in circuit court.
As Gates was led in handcuffs to patrol car for transport to jail, he told reporters that he was trying to get someone to listen to him, because his children had been taken away. He said he had asked the church for assistance, but no one would help him.
Gates also said he never aimed the shotgun at anyone in the church, although an incident report states that he pointed it at the Rev. Henry Guyton and the congregation.
“I've been praying, begging,” Gates said. “They won't let me see my children. I tried everything. What can you do?”
Angela Gates also spoke to the media as she was taken to a patrol car to go to jail. She said she didn't know her brother had a gun and that Jesse Gates drove himself to the church. Ivey said Angela Gates was in the car with her brother when they went to the church.
“He (Jesse) said he was going to talk to his kids,” Angela Gates said.
Neither law enforcement nor Henry Guyton know who Jesse Gates was referring to when he said “they” took away his children.
Church members react
The Rev. Guyton's wife, Joyce, 70, said she remained calm through the incident, even as Gates pointed the shotgun at her husband in the pulpit.
“He said, ‘Come out of the pulpit,' ” Joyce Guyton said. “He said it three times. He scared some of the members to death. Some of them crawled under the benches and chairs. I don't know if he was drugged or what was wrong with him, but he was bad.”
Joyce Guyton said Gates had been attending services at Southside for about the past month, and church members remember him there from many years ago when he was a child.
“He told me he had just gotten out of prison for stealing,” Joyce Guyton said.
She says Gates didn't ask for help.
“We help people who need help,” Joyce Guyton said. “We've helped a lot of families over there. They've never come back with a gun.”
Aaron Guyton said he's had a concealed weapons permit since 2009, and usually keeps his gun in the car during church. But after Gates showed up at the church the first time, Aaron Guyton said he decided to keep the gun in his back pocket the rest of the morning. He says he couldn't believe he almost had to use his gun inside the church he's attended all of his life. But he says he would have shot Gates to protect his grandparents, 8-year-old sister and 7-week-old cousin if his grandfather, whom he calls “Pops,” hadn't been able to jerk the shotgun out of Gates' hand.
“Once we got him (Gates) on the ground, he was begging forgiveness,” Aaron Guyton said. “It was the first time I ever had to draw my weapon on someone.”
But when asked if he felt like a hero, Aaron Guyton replied, “I feel like I done what needed to be done. If my grandfather hadn't grabbed the gun, I was going to take his (Gates') life. I'm very proud of my grandfather. He moves quick.”
The Rev. Guyton said Gates has attended church there about four times, but his children do not.
The church had a meal after services on Sunday, and because a singing had previously been scheduled, the evening worship service had been canceled before the morning's incident, Guyton said.
The pastor has led the church for all of his 36 years in the ministry and said he's never had an incident like Sunday's happen in his sanctuary.
Guyton did not express anger at the man who brought a shotgun into his church on Sunday morning.
“I pray for him,” Guyton said. “He's lost. We just hope he gets straightened out.”
http://www.goupstate.com/article/20120325/ARTICLES/120329781/1112?p=1&tc=pg
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