DETROIT - Not guilty pleas have been entered in Michigan on behalf of eight of nine members of a Christian militia that prosecutors claim plotted to kill police officers and kick-start a violent revolution.
The eight were arraigned Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, including the alleged ringleader, 44-year-old David Brian Stone.
Stone was among nine members of the Hutaree militia arrested after a series of raids in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. A court document says an undercover FBI agent and a cooperating witness were part of the federal probe.
A hearing to determine if they'll be released on bail began Wednesday for Stone and six others. One suspect's bond hearing will be Thursday.
The ninth suspect was in court in Indiana, and will be arraigned later in Michigan.
Militia raid
It all started inside a trailer home in rural Michigan, where Stone's family gathered before bed for prayer. Years later, the private devotions had evolved into the Hutaree, a name the group's Web site says they created to mean "Christian warrior."
It all started inside a trailer home in rural Michigan, where Stone's family gathered before bed for prayer. Years later, the private devotions had evolved into the Hutaree, a name the group's Web site says they created to mean "Christian warrior."
The changes in Stone's personal theology partly destroyed his marriage, his former wife says, and prosecutors claim they later led him to hatch a plot to kill police officers — a violent act the militia hoped would touch off an uprising against the government.
"The time had come that we needed to arrest them and take them down," U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press.
Donna Stone, 44, said her ex-husband created the legal problems now faced by her stepson, Joshua Matthew Stone, and her 19-year-old son, David Brian Stone Jr., by involving them in a militia that grew out of his faith.
"I honestly feel, and think, their dad never told either of those boys what they were getting into," she said. "This a bunch of garbage, these charges. There is no way my son would do these things."
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Donna Stone said she met David Brian Stone in the late 1990s in a grocery store where she worked. He courted her and soon afterward, she and her son, Sean Stetten, moved into his small trailer in Lenawee County, near the Ohio state line. The boys were raised as brothers, and David Brian Stone legally adopted Sean, whose name was changed to David Brian Stone Jr.
Both boys were home-schooled and at night, the family would pray together.
"David would preach out of the Bible," said Donna Stone, who said she was married to David Brian Stone for about six years. "He would start at the beginning of Genesis and go to Revelations. He didn't get into Revelations because we didn't agree on it. David said it was supposed to be different. He had his own views. That's when I thought it was time for me to go."
The Hutaree Web site quotes several Bible passages and declares: "We believe that one day, as prophecy says, there will be an Anti-Christ. ... Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay alive using equipment."
McQuade downplayed the role religious ideology played in the group's alleged plans, saying the "most troubling" finding of their investigation into the Hutaree were the details of their alleged plot. Prosecutors have said the militia planned to make a false 911 call, kill responding police officers and then use a bomb to kill many more at the funeral.
"What we were focused on here is their conduct, not on their religion. And what they have talked about is being very anti-government," McQuade said. "They fear this 'new world order' and they thought that it was their job to fight against government — the federal government in particular."
The group was preparing to carry out an attack sometime in April, prosecutors said, after months of paramilitary training that began in 2008 and included learning how to shoot guns and make bombs. Authorities seized guns in the raids but would not say whether they found explosives.
McQuade declined to discuss other specifics, including how the group originally came to the attention of authorities or how agents learned about the alleged plans for an attack in April.
I love that they asked for “Public Defender”, they know now that there was an undercover FBI agent. The simpleton Tea baggers keep missing the point. These are the same whiners that were crying when the McCain/Bailin ticket lost. Now that their yelling (because they are haters not debaters) did not stop health care from passing, they are crying again. They think they can scare, intimidate and force others to go along with them by comments like “This time we came unarmed”, let me tell you something they are not the only ones who have guns and not all ex-military join the fringe militia crazies who don’t pay taxes and run around in the parks playing commando, the majority understand that the world is more complicated and grey then the black and white that these simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. So it’s only fitting that their leaders are Sarah Bailin, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and their turn coat Glenn. So if you are bothered that there are some misconceptions of your group, well then I think you need to be more careful who you invite to give you speeches.
ReplyDeleteYou're quite correct about ex-military. I saw a poll years ago that Democrats outnumber Republicans in the armed services. And they have at one time sworn to uphold the constitution, which right wingnuts seem to have never read and understood. Just look at their ignorance regarding church and state alliances.
ReplyDeleteMy nephew Justin did a tour in Iraq and was one of the soldiers who trained the new Iraqi Army. He rides a Harley and votes democrat.
A lot of these militia types are just warrior wannabees, who, like Muslim terrorists, would attack the authorities of the USA and then wait for help and attack again. This is a tested model of Islamic extremism. Like the suicide bombers who blow themselves up, killing innocent women and children in markets, they are true cowards.
What I don't get is how a bunch of people on Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.....or close to getting them, make such a hypocritical noise. I guess they don't want government run healthcare to mess up their own government run healthcare.
My history of the religious right website http://www.stopthereligiousright.org