By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) /
(www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
CINCINNATI, Ohio-A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Friday upheld the 2012 prison sentences of four young White men that were active in the now defunct Occupy Cleveland movement who pleaded guilty to plotting to bomb Route 82 bridge in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Sagamore Hills between Cleveland and Akron, Ohio with dummy explosives provided by an FBI Informant Shaquille Azir.
Akron is a city some 35 miles south of Cleveland.
Federal District Court Judge David Dowd sentenced Brandon Baxter, then 21, of Lakewood, Oh., to 9 years and 9 months in prison, Connor Stephens, 21 at the time, of Berea, Oh., to an 8 year prison sentence, and gave Anthony Hayne of Cleveland, then 35, who cooperated with federal prosecutors, six years.
Ring Leader Douglas White, then 27, and of Indianapolis, Indiana, was handed a sentence of 11 and 1/2 years.
Fifth suspect Joshua Safford, 25, of Cleveland, is undergoing psychiatric analysis and his case is still pending.
The defendants also argued on appeal, through their attorneys, that they were set up and that the bomb plot was not terrorism. The appeals court panel disagreed.
"A defendant has the requisite intent if he or she acted with the purpose of influencing or affecting government conduct and planned his or her actions with this objective in mind," the 21-page opinion reads in part.
From top left Connor Stephens, Brandon Baxter and Douglas White, all former members of Occupy Cleveland that U.S. District Court Judge David Dowd Jr. of the Federal District Court of the Northern District of Ohio in Cleveland sentenced to prison terms after the trio pleaded guilty to a plot to bomb an Ohio bridge between Akron and Cleveland. From bottom former Occupy Cleveland members Anthony Hayne, (bottom left) who was also sentenced, and Joshua Safford, whose case is still pending as he undergoes psychiatric analysis.
Some activists said the men gave the Occupy Cleveland movement a bad name and contributed to its demise.
"Protests are necessary but they need to be peaceful and non-violent," Larry Bresler told Cleveland Urban News.Com at the time of the sentencing.
A Cleveland community activist who leads Organize Ohio and the Northeast Ohio Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, Bresler said that the controversy destroyed the organization.
Baxter's father told reporters that his son was set up and that he is innocent but had to take the plea deal to avoid a potential longer sentence from Judge Dowd.
Prosecutors had originally said they would seek 30 years to life in prison for all four defendants, all self proclaimed anarchists that Occupy Cleveland members said allegedly talked about violence but never acted on it.
Occupy Cleveland emerged in Cleveland on Oct. 6, 2011 and marched against city hall, holding additional protests before taking camp on Public Square, though the group ended up in a dispute with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, who is Black, and he eventually kicked them off of Public Square, a dispute tempered at first after a federal district court judge said the protesters had a constitutionally protected free speech right to protest but could not sleep there in tents.
Eleven Occupy Cleveland members were arrested later than year by Cleveland police in swat gear and charged with misdemeanor crimes including resisting arrest during a peaceful protest over the mayor's refusal to permit the downtown camping and protesting. That protest drew some 300 people, and an array of local and national media, though none of the arrested 11 served jail time and other than a few that got their cases dropped, all took plea deals.
Jackson initially allowed permits for the tents and protests but after the permits expired late in 2011 he wanted them gone, saying Christmas season was coming and the city had other plans for Public Square, a center of the downtown section of the majority Black major metropolitan city of some 400,000 people.
The mayor's spokesperson on Occupy Cleveland told Cleveland Urban News.Com in 2011 shortly after the arrest of the Occupy Cleveland 11 that Jackson supports efforts to end foreclosure corruption and mortgage fraud but that he disagrees with the way Occupy Cleveland, a largely White group with most members between the ages of 20 and 35, has gone about doing it.
"Mayor Jackson led Cleveland City Council in passing a predatory lending law long before other cities were even aware of the issues and he sued over banks and mortgage companies for the damages that they caused to Cleveland neighborhoods," said Jackson Chief of Staff Ken Silliman in an interview in 2011. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) /(www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
