Judge condemns FBI’s role in sting
3 of ‘Newburgh 4’ to be released
NEW YORK — Three men convicted in a post-9/11 terrorism sting have been ordered freed from prison by a judge who deemed their lengthy sentences “unduly harsh and unjust” and decried the FBI’s role in radicalizing them in a plot to blow up New York synagogues and shoot down National Guard planes.
Onta Williams, David Williams, and Laguerre Payen — three of the men known as the “Newburgh Four” — were “hapless, easily manipulated, and penurious petty criminals” caught up more than a decade ago in a scheme driven by overzealous FBI agents and a dodgy informant, US District Judge Colleen McMahon said in her ruling Thursday.
She said that it was “heinous” of the men to agree to participate in what she called the government’s “made for TV movie.” But, the judge added, “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 excoriated the government for sending “a villain” of an informant “to troll among the poorest and weakest of men for ‘terrorists’ who might prove susceptible to an offer of muchneeded cash in exchange for committing a faux crime.”
Citing concerns for the men’s health and her own qualms about the case, McMahon cut the 25-year mandatory minimum sentences she imposed on them in 2011 to time served plus 90 days. She said that would allow time for probation officials to prepare and for Payen’s lawyer to line up supportive housing for the man, who has a severe 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, part of a group of lawyers representing Payen and the Willamses, who are not related. Gupta in his statement described the three as destitute men “entrapped for their race, religion, and working-class backgrounds by a government looking to spread fear of Muslims and justify bloated budgets.”
Kathy Manley, who represented Payen, said the prosecution “should never have happened, but now at least the men will soon be out of prison.” Samuel Braverman, who represented Payen at trial, called the ruling “incredibly brave and just.”
The fourth man, James Cromitie, wasn’t part of the compassionate release request and is expected to complete his prison sentence in 2030.
Cromitie’s attorney, Kerry Lawrence, plans to speak with him about pursuing similar action on his behalf.
Payen, Cromitie, and the Williamses were arrested in 2009, during a period of heightened public and law enforcement concern about the threat of terror strikes hatched within the US by supporters of foreign extremists.
Officials portrayed Cromitie as the ringleader of a “chilling plot” among “extremely violent men” loyal to a Pakistani terrorist group — though the government later decided not to present any evidence about foreign terrorist organizations at trial. A court complaint described him as a man seething with antiAmerican and antisemitic sentiment and eager to translate those feelings into bloody action.
Prosecutors said the defendants had spent months scouting targets and securing what they thought were explosives and a surface-to-air missile, aiming to shoot down planes at the Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y., and blow up synagogues in Riverdale, a heavily Jewish part of the Bronx. They were arrested there after allegedly planting bombs that were, in fact, packed with inert explosives supplied by the FBI.