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Posted on 05/07/2004 11:23:18 AM PDT by MontanaBeth
Feds sweep down on militant suspects
By Chery Sabol The Daily Inter Lake
More than 100 local officers and federal agents stormed three rural homes Thursday morning before dawn, arresting two men with alleged ties to the paramilitary group Project 7. Another was arrested near Helena later. The group was accused two years ago of plotting to kill local officials. One man connected with the group, David Earl Burgert, was convicted in 2003 of federal weapons charges. He was reportedly indicted on further charges Wednesday, along with the other three.
Arrested without incident at their homes Thursday morning were James Riley Day, 60, of Patrick Creek Road and John William Slater, 54, of Shady Lane. Another man, Steven Neil Morey, 44, of the El Rancho Motel in Evergreen, was arrested outside of Helena.
Day is charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and illegal possession of a machine gun. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $260,000 fine. He reportedly has a 1973 conviction for felony possession of marijuana in California.
Slater is charged with illegal possession of machine guns and possession of firearms with obliterated serial numbers. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Morey also is charged with illegal possession of machine guns and possession of firearms with obliterated serial numbers. He also faces up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
All three men are expected to appear in federal court in Great Falls today.
Items of evidence were seized during the arrests, according to Ken Bray, resident agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for Western Montana. He said officials Thursday weren't ready to disclose what the evidence is.
More charges against the men and more arrests are expected.
"This is the beginning of a successful outcome to this investigation," Bray said.
"We hope this investigation sends a clear and convincing message that criminal activity perpetrated in order to intimidate public officials will not be tolerated," said Scott Cruse, supervisory senior resident agent for the FBI in Helena.
Flathead County Sheriff Jim Dupont, who was one of the alleged targets of Project 7, said law-enforcement took the threat seriously.
"A lot of data indicated that was probably going to be attempted," he said of the assassinations.
The investigation began when Burgert, now in a Minnesota medical prison, had a confrontation in February 2002 with a teenager west of Kalispell. Burgert was wanted at the time on a bail-jumping charge following a charge of assaulting an officer.
The teen told authorities that Burgert and others had formed a group named Project 7 that was stockpiling weapons and planning to assassinate local judges, police, and prosecutors.
Sheriff Jim Dupont said the informant told officials that the group had a bizarre plan that would lead to a civil war. He said the group planned to kill local police and judges, evoke a National Guard response and battle with the National Guard until a revolution ensued, with militia members from outside Montana coming in to help.
Burgert, who was reported missing and whose wife accused police of killing him, was found with a woman described as a "medic" with the group. The woman, Tracy Brockway, was arrested and later received a 10-year suspended sentence for obstructing justice by harboring a fugitive. Burgert fled into the woods west of Kalispell, where SWAT officers and others pursued him through the night and arrested him the following morning.
Officials then searched Brockway's Smith Lake Road home and a 1977 Travelese 20-foot camp trailer there, a pickup camper mounted on a flatbed trailer parked at Mountain Meadow Road and a Gateway personal computer from Brockway's home.
They reportedly seized weapons, including 25,000 rounds of ammunition, commercial explosives, a gun with an illegal silencer, pipe bombs, shackles and other gear.
Also confiscated were "intel sheets" on law-enforcement officers, including home addresses and phone numbers for officers, physical descriptions and data on their spouses and children. Even bank account numbers reportedly were listed for some officers.
Burgert was eventually convicted of federal weapons charges for possessing an illegal machine gun and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was arrested with an FN-FAL .308-caliber, fully automatic machine gun. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Burgert has acknowledged being a member of a group, not necessarily called Project 7, whose mission was not sinister, but was merely intended to provide supplies and services in the case of natural disaster or military conflict.
"I'm not the leader of the militia. There's no plot to overthrow the government or murder anybody," he said from the county jail after his arrest.
In a March 2002 interview with the Daily Inter Lake, he said he and his companions are devout Christians and murder violates the tenets of both his faith and the militia he says must be guided by the Constitution and the law.
"None of my friends or family will murder anybody," Burgert said. "Murder is unacceptable."
But the group wanted to be prepared "if we ever had to go to the battlefield, if a foreign country ever invaded us," he said. Russia and China are the only countries that pose a threat, Burgert said.
"China is so big and powerful. I don't believe 35 deputy sheriffs" could resist an invasion, he said. "They need all the help they can get."
There was a list of local officials kept by the group, Burgert conceded, but wouldn't reveal what qualifies them for the list or what it means, except that there is "a very valid reason" for keeping it.
It includes "a couple dozen policemen," he said, including five highway patrolmen and seven sheriff's deputies, Kalispell police officers and Justice of the Peace David Ortley.
Burgert said, "I need them to charge me" with a federal charge of conspiracy to commit murder before he would be able to reveal what the list means.
After Burgert's arrest, discussion of the Project 7 group made national news and then faded.
But FBI and ATF agents continued their investigation, devoting thousands of hours to the matter and conducting countless interviews in the past two years.
"Steve Liss worked his behind off," said Flathead County Sheriff's detective commander Bruce Parish of a local FBI agent.
Dupont credited the FBI and ATF for their dedication to the case. The number of agents in town Thursday was because their mission was two-fold, he said.
They wanted to arrest Day, Morey and Slater. They also broke into teams to interview other people associated with Project 7.
The federal agencies, the U.S. attorney in Montana, Bill Mercer, and local officers have cooperated, Dupont said.
"That's the way it should be. Independent agencies all have the common goal to protect citizens," he said.
Sheriff's deputies and Kalispell Police officers were called to help with the arrests Thursday.
"This is not going to stop here," Dupont said of the three arrests.
Kalispell Police Chief Frank Garner said Thursday the arrests "definitely corroborate the criminal conspiracies we talked about before."
He said he's grateful for the work of the federal agents.
"I think it's important they are investigating these kinds of allegations and groups because they're criminals and engaged in serious criminal conduct," Garner said.
"The government is serious about the enforcement of the federal firearm laws in Montana and will use its resources to that end," Bray said.
05/07/2004
James Riley Day, John William Slater, Steven Neil Morey
Round up anybody who uses all three of their names.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Oooops! One less FR troll complaining about how no one is as conservative as him...
Come on, wouldn't you want to be the Bureau of FATE?
And Wayne.
Back at my Former Place of Employment, the accounting department of a life insurance company, I used to answer the phone, "Life Controller, may I help you?"
Yup.
Maria Teresa Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira Heinz Kerry
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