Five individuals affiliated with the “Occupy” movement in Cleveland arrested earlier this month in a FBI sting operation for allegedly plotting to blow up a bridge are flight risks and “pose a danger to the community,” federal prosecutors said in a court filing Tuesday.
Authorities are opposing requests by four of the defendants to be released on bond and monitored electronically until their trial in September.
Joshua Stafford would like to stay with his mother. His public defender wrote that the 23-year-old “has a host of mental health issues which are better addressed outside of the prison complex.”
Brandon Baxter would like to stay with his father. The 22-year-old was treated in a psychological facility as a juvenile “after he acted against his abusive stepfather,” according to his lawyer. He allegedly tried to commit suicide in February 2012.
A lawyer for 20-year-old Connor Stevens noted that his parents and his siblings reside in the area and that he only had been charged with misdemeanors in the past. Alleged ringleader Doug Wright, 26, would like to stay with a Cleveland woman who appears to be his girlfriend. Anthony Hayne, 35, did not file a request to be released on bond.
U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd, Jr. has scheduled a detention hearing for May 30.
