garimpo Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Charges dismissed in Michigan militia caseDETROIT – A federal judge on Tuesday gutted the government's case against seven members of a U.S. militia, dismissing the most serious charges in an extraordinary defeat for federal authorities who insisted they had captured homegrown rural extremists poised for war.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 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."Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/27/charges-dismissed-in-michigan-militia-case/?test=latestnews#ixzz1qPd8jcVe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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