DETROIT | Displaying guns, vests and other military gear, a prosecutor told jurors Monday that members of a Midwest militia were “willing to go to war” in an extraordinary plot to kill a police officer as a springboard to a broader rebellion against the U.S. government.
Some of the evidence was placed directly in front of the jury box as trial opened for seven members of a group called Hutaree who are charged with conspiring to commit sedition as well as weapons crimes.
Still, defense attorneys dismissed any talk by the defendants as little more than fantasy and equated the group more to a “social club” than a militia.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Graveline said the anti-government Hutaree was looking for some type of conflict to trigger an attack - maybe a traffic stop, a search warrant or a dispute between authorities and another militia.
“They wanted to start an armed confrontation …. The war to them meant patriots rising up against the government,” said Mr. Graveline, who held up automatic weapons and other items seized after nine people were arrested in southern Michigan, Indiana and Ohio in March 2010.
The defendants are accused of conspiring to someday ambush and kill a police officer, then attack the funeral procession with explosives and trigger a broader revolt against the U.S. government.
Mr. Graveline showed the jury a video clip of leader David Stone Sr. declaring “Welcome to the revolution.” The government placed an undercover agent inside the Hutaree and also had a paid informant.
“They were ready, willing and able to go to war. They were preparing for war,” the prosecutor said.
Mr. Stone and others, wearing their Sunday best instead of military fatigues, listened closely at the start of a trial that could last six to eight weeks. Two defense attorneys offered an opening rebuttal to the government’s introduction, telling jurors there was no specific plan to do any harm to anyone in authority.
Todd Shanker, attorney for David Stone Jr., acknowledged there are “offensive statements” on the recordings but said the words were “almost fantasy,” made among people who were comfortable with each other.
“These are extreme charges … They are going to fail, and they are going to fail miserably,” Mr. Shanker said, adding later that the Hutaree really was more of a “social club” than any organized militia.
William Swor, attorney for David Stone Sr., said his client was a firm believer in the Bible’s Book of Revelation and the coming of an “Antichrist.”
“The Antichrist as David Stone understands it will come from overseas, and the troops of the Antichrist will take over America. That is the resistance that David Stone was preparing for,” Mr. Swor said.
Of the original nine defendants, Joshua Clough of Blissfield, Mich., is the only one to make a deal with prosecutors. He pleaded guilty in December to illegal use of a firearm, faces a mandatory five-year prison sentence and could be called as a witness to testify for the government. Another will have a separate trial.
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