NATO 3 get prison terms ranging from 5 to 8 years

Tom Durkin, the attorney for NATO 3 defendant Jared Chase, told reporters today that the case was 'politically motivated.'

Cook County prosecutors raised the specter of the Boston Marathon bombings in asking for hefty sentences for three alleged anarchists convicted of making crude Molotov cocktails in the lead-up to the 2012 NATO summit, but a judge ended up imposing more modest prison terms Friday that could result in their release in less than two years.

Judge Thaddeus Wilson took the middle ground, sentencing the so-called NATO 3 to between 5 and 8 years in prison, well below the 14 years sought by prosecutors but more than the time served wanted by the defense.

Wilson perhaps best explained his rationale by saying that the out-of-town men hadnt been as cunning as the Three Musketeers as portrayed by prosecutors or as bungling as the Three Stooges as the defense contended.

The three-week trial of Brian Church, Jared Chase and Brent Betterly marked the first test in Cook County of a state terrorism law enacted in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. In a blow for States Attorney Anita Alvarez, a jury in February acquitted all three of the more serious terrorism charges but convicted them of felony counts of possessing an incendiary device and misdemeanor mob action.

Prosecutors alleged that they had plotted attacks on police stations, President Barack Obamas campaign headquarters and Mayor Rahm Emanuels home. But the defense, bolstered by undercover police recordings that prosecutors played in court, argued that the three were goofs who talked big and were goaded on by two police officers working their first undercover investigation.

In court Friday, Assistant States Attorney Jack Blakey credited strong police work and good fortune with preventing an attack like the Boston bombings that killed three and injured 264. He argued for stiff prison sentences, saying the three defendants remained unrepentant.

They are a disaster waiting to happen, he told the judge.

But defense attorneys blasted prosecutors for the comparison, saying it was a further sign of their overzealous efforts in a case that was overcharged and rebuffed by jurors.

We have a prosecutor with the mentality of the Spanish Inquisition, said Thomas Anthony Durkin, Chases attorney.

Follow this link:

NATO 3 get prison terms ranging from 5 to 8 years