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Hutaree members could be released today
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By DAVID ASHENFELTER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
[link to www.freep.com]
federal judge in Detroit refused late Wednesday to go along with prosecutors’ request to keep nine members of a Lenawee County Christian militia locked up pending an appeals court ruling on her earlier decision to release them on bond.
“The government failed to persuade the court that defendants must be detained until trial,” U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said in an 8-page order. “Accordingly, the court dissolves its limited stay and orders defendants released.”
• READ THE ORDER: Judge Roberts' decision on releasing the Hutaree members
But U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said later that she will appeal Roberts’ decision to the Court of Appeals.
“It is never acceptable to plan and train to kill law enforcement officers,” she said. “We owe it to the law enforcement community and the public to seek the detention of these defendants.”
Roberts had issued her order after the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit asked the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals earlier in the day to overturn her decision Monday to release the members of the Hutaree militia with more than two dozen bond restrictions, including house arrest, electronic monitoring and curfews. Roberts held up the release to allow prosecutors to appeal.
Prosecutors say the defendants are too dangerous to release. Defense lawyers persuaded Roberts otherwise, and her decision Monday questioned the strength of the government’s case.
Roberts’ latest order means the defendants could be released as early at today after signing bond papers at U.S. District Court in Detroit. They are being held in jails in Sanilac, St. Clair and Wayne counties.
“Certainly, the public has an interest in insuring the safety of its communities,” Roberts said in the order. “But, the public also has an interest in making certain that our laws are abided by. The Bail Reform Act mandates that the court ‘impose the least restrictive conditions of bond consistent with its responsibility to assure the safety of the community.’”
Defense lawyers said they were pleased.
“Hopefully we can get this part of the case behind us and get down to tryng the case on its merits and finding out whether they can convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt,” said attorney Arthur Weiss, who represents defendant Thomas Piatek, 45, of Whiting, Ind. Weiss predicted earlier in the day that the appeals court would be hard-pressed to show that Roberts abused her discretion.
Meanwhile, legal experts said the government faces a daunting legal fight in persuading the appeals court to overturn Roberts’ decision.
“They’ve got an uphill battle on their hands,” Wayne State University law professor Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor, said earlier Wednesday.
He said Roberts conducted a thorough hearing and wrote a detailed decision in deciding to release the defendants with all the bond restrictions. “It’s not like she was shooting from the hip,” Henning said.
The defendants, including David Stone, 45, of Clayton, suspected to be the Hutaree leader, are accused of plotting the violent overthrow of the U.S. government and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction. The weapons charge carries a maximum life sentence.
Prosecutors said the group was plotting to kill cops and had planned a potentially lethal operation when FBI agents arrested them in late March. Defense lawyers said the suspects were big talkers but never acted.
Henning said the appeals court could take a few days or a few months to resolve the bond dispute, space: depending upon how deeply it digs into the matter.
“Appellate judges don’t like to get dragged into these fights,” he said.
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