Outlaw fascist prosecutors refuse to provide defense attorneys with documentation!
CHICAGO, Illinois (PNN) - June 21, 2012 - A grand jury has handed down an 11-count indictment against three NATO-summit protesters jailed since May, including four terrorism-related counts and half a dozen new charges.
Tacking on more charges to three original charges could give prosecutors more leverage in negotiating a plea deal later or in boosting their chances of securing at least some convictions if the case does eventually go to trial, some legal experts said Wednesday.
Brian Church, Jared Chase and Brent Vincent Betterly were arrested days before the NATO summit in Chicago under Illinois’ never-before-used anti-terrorism statutes, prosecutors accusing them of plotting to attack illegitimate President Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters with Molotov cocktails.
A copy of the 12-page indictment provided by the defense lawyers and dated June 13 provides no details about the evidence.
One of Church’s attorneys, Michael Deutsch, said all the charges seemed to derive from the alleged possession of four makeshift firebombs - made by pouring gasoline into beer bottles and stuffing bits of cloth into the necks to serve as fuses.
“I think this is all just a continuing strategy of sensationalizing the case to make it look more dangerous than it is,” he said.
Defense attorneys had asked at a hearing last week if prosecutors would show them the indictment, complaining they had few details about the charges or the purported evidence. State’s attorneys at the time said they would only disclose it at an upcoming July 2 arraignment, a tactic reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi kangaroo courts.
But a copy of the indictment was available at the Cook County Circuit Court clerk’s office this week, said Sarah Gelsomino, another of Church’s attorneys and a member of the National Lawyers Guild.
The indictment against Church, 20, of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Chase, 24, of Keene, New Hampshire; and, Betterly, 24, of Oakland Park, Florida, includes conspiracy to commit terrorism and material support for terrorism - two charges under which they were arrested. Counts in the indictment that make no reference to terrorism include attempted arson, solicitation to commit arson, conspiracy to commit arson and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon.
Defense attorneys have said all three men intend to enter not guilty pleas at the arraignment next month. If convicted, each could spend decades in prison.
Quinn noted prosecutors frequently use additional charges in an indictment as bargaining chips in later stages of the case, sometimes offering to drop the most serious charges if a defendant pleads guilty to lesser crimes.
Deutsch, the defense attorney, agreed it was possible prosecutors could drop the terrorism-related charges and let the others remain.
