Friday, May 4, 2012
The men each face three counts stemming from a what federal officials say was a plan to blow up a Brecksville bridge.
The five men arrested in the plot to blow up a bridge in Brecksville have now been indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday. The self-proclaimed anarchists will each face three counts stemming from a plan hatched over several months to blow up the State Route 82 bridge over the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Brandon Baxter, 20, of Lakewood, Douglas L. Wright, 26, Anthony Hayne, 35, Connor C. Stevens, 20, and Joshua S. Stafford, 23, face charges including one count of attempted use of an explosive. The men had hoped to use C-4 explosives to blow up the bridge, after deciding against other targets such as the Cuyahoga County Justice Center, the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland and the Detroit-Superior Bridge, according to an affidavit…
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Lakewood native Brandon Baxter expected to plead not guilty next week.
The lawyer for Brandon Baxter, a Lakewood man who is charged with four others of plotting to blow up a Brecksville bridge, said Wednesday his client was coached into participating in the scheme by an FBI informant working the case. Cleveland attorney John Pyle, who took on Baxter’s case this week, said his client would not have — and could not have — gone through with the plot if not for the FBI's involvement. Pyle said his client will plead not guilty next week. Baxter, 20, Douglas L. Wright, 26, Anthony Hayne, 35, Connor C. Stevens, 20, and Joshua S. Stafford, 23, are each charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of attempted use of an explosive. They were arrested Monday night. According to the FBI affidavit, the agency used a…
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
At least three of the men are not strangers to law enforcement agencies in Northeast Ohio.
Several of the men arrested in connection with the suspected plot to blow up a Brecksville bridge have faced criminal charges before, including one juvenile charge of aggravated attempted murder. Douglas L. Wright, 26, Brandon L. Baxter, 20, Anthony Hayne, 35, Connor C. Stevens, 20, and Joshua S. Stafford, 23, are each charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of attempted use of an explosive, said Mike Tobin, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Department of Justice, Northern District of Ohio. Charges against Wright, Baxter and Hayne were made Monday. Charges weren’t made against Stevens and Stafford until Tuesday. None entered pleas Tuesday afternoon. For at least three of the men, their arrests in the suspected bomb plot is…
One was involved in Occupy Cleveland protests last summer.
At least two of five men arrested in connection with an alleged plot to blow up a bridge in Brecksville have ties to Lakewood. Brandon L. Baxter, 20, and Anthony Hayne, 35, — who were arrested along with Douglas L. Wright, 26 — have been known to live in Lakewood. In all, FBI has arrested five people who are accused of conspiring to use explosives on a bridge in Brecksville in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. On Friday, Baxter celebrated his 20th birthday at the Root Café on Detroit Avenue. He was quiet. He ordered cookies. Julie Hutchison, the co-owner of the Root, said she knew Baxter from the Occupy Cleveland protests last summer. She remembers him as a “punk-rock kid,” who “kept to himself.” She said he originally was from Lakewood, …
Garry Kanter
11:54 am on Monday, May 21, 2012
Those are not my words, nor anything I implied. more ›