Onta Williams, David Williams, and Laguerre Payen – three of the “Newburgh Four” – were “hapless, easily manipulated, and penurious petty criminals” caught up in a scheme driven by overzealous FBI agents and a shady informant more than a decade ago, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon ruled Thursday.
“The real lead conspirator was the United States,” McMahon wrote in granted the men’s compassionate release request, which will take effect in three months.
She termed it “heinous” for the guys to consent to take part in the government’s “made for TV movie.” However, the judge went on to say that “the sentence was the product of a fictitious plot to do things that these men had never remotely contemplated, and that were never going to happen.”
She chastised the government for dispatching “a villain” of an informant “to troll among the poorest and weakest of men for ‘terrorists’ who might be susceptible to an offer of much-needed cash in exchange for committing a fictitious crime.”
The US Attorney’s Office did not respond to the judge’s judgment. The FBI was contacted and asked for comment.
McMahon reduced the 25-year mandatory minimum sentences she imposed on them in 2011 to time served plus 90 days, citing concerns for the men’s health and her personal reservations about the case.
She stated that this would give probation authorities time to prepare and Payen’s counsel time to find supportive accommodation for the guy, who suffers from serious mental illness.
“We are tremendously pleased that our clients are on their way home — even if it’s fourteen years too late,” said Amith R. Gupta, one of the lawyers representing Payen and the Willamses, who are unrelated.
Gupta called the three as “entrapped for their race, religion, and working-class backgrounds by a government looking to spread fear of Muslims and justify bloated budgets.”
Payen’s attorney, Kathy Manley, stated that the prosecution “should never have happened,” but that “at least the men will soon be out of prison.” Payen’s attorney, Samuel Braverman, termed the decision “incredibly brave and just.”
The fourth guy, James Cromitie, was not included in the compassionate release request and is scheduled to finish his term in 2030.
Kerry Lawrence, Cromitie’s attorney, intends to speak with him about taking similar action on his behalf.
“I’m confident he would be entitled to relief for the same reasons articulated by Judge McMahon for the other defendants,” Lawrence stated.
Payen, Cromitie, and the Williamses were apprehended in 2009, at a time when public and law enforcement officials were concerned about the potential of terror attacks organized within the United States by sympathizers of overseas radicals.
Cromitie was characterized by officials as the mastermind of a “chilling plot” among “extremely violent men” dedicated to a Pakistani terrorist cell, however the government eventually opted not to submit any information concerning foreign terrorist organizations at trial.
According to the court complaint, he was a guy rife with anti-American and anti-Semitic passion who was anxious to turn his beliefs into lethal action.
Prosecutors said the defendants spent months studying places and obtaining what they thought were explosives and a surface-to-air missile, with the intent of shooting down planes at the Air National Guard facility in Newburgh, New York, and blowing up synagogues in Riverdale, a mainly Jewish neighborhood in the Bronx.
They were caught after reportedly placing devices that were really packed with inert explosives provided by the FBI.Relatives said the four guys were down on their luck after serving time in jail.
The men’s attorneys quickly raised concerns about entrapment, a legal defense that claims people were seduced into unlawful behavior they would not have undertaken otherwise.
According to the defense attorneys, government informant Shaheed Hussain sought to incite the guys with rhetoric before selecting the targets, offering a large sum of money, buying the defendants groceries, and providing the phony explosives and missile.
The defense painted Hussain as a self-serving manipulator out to appease the authorities following his own, unrelated fraud conviction.
In 2010, jurors deliberated for eight days before convicting the guys. They lost an appeal three years later. Thursday night, a potential phone number for Hussain went unanswered.
Hussain apparently collaborated with the FBI on other stings, including one that targeted an Albany pizza restaurant owner and an imam and involved a loan funded by a bogus missile sale.
Both men, who claimed they were duped, were found guilty of money laundering and conspiring to help a terrorist organization.
Hussain made headlines again a few years later when a stretch limo crashed in rural Schoharie, New York, killing 20 passengers. Hussain apparently collaborated with the FBI on other stings, including one that targeted an Albany pizza restaurant owner and an imam and involved a loan funded by a bogus missile sale.
Both men, who claimed they were duped, were found guilty of money laundering and conspiring to help a terrorist organization.
Hussain made headlines again a few years later when a stretch limo crashed in rural Schoharie, New York, killing 20 passengers. Hussain was the owner of the limo firm, which was run by his son Nauman Hussain.
Hussain apparently collaborated with the FBI on other stings, including one that targeted an Albany pizza restaurant owner and an imam and involved a loan funded by a bogus missile sale. Both men, who claimed they were duped, were found guilty of money laundering and conspiring to help a terrorist organization.
Hussain made headlines again a few years later when a stretch limo crashed in rural Schoharie, New York, killing 20 passengers. Hussain was the owner of the limo firm, which was run by his son Nauman Hussain.
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