KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A federal judge on Tuesday disagreed with prosecutors who wanted bond revoked for a Georgia militiaman awaiting trial on charges of carrying an AK-47 into East Tennessee after allegedly threatening a possible courthouse takeover.
Darren Wesley Huff of Dallas, Ga., declined comment other than a snarled insult to a reporter outside the hearing after U.S. Magistrate Bruce Guyton said there was no reason to revoke Huff's bond or return him to electronic monitoring.
Guyton also delayed Huff's trial, setting back the scheduled start from Jan. 10 to April 12. A conviction on the charges, including carrying a firearm in interstate commerce with an intent of using it in a civil disorder, carries a maximum possible penalty of 10 years in prison.
Huff, 41, is accused in court documents of taking an AK-47 and ammunition across the state line in April 2009 after threatening to take over the Monroe County Courthouse in East Tennessee and arrest certain officials.
Huff in December pleaded guilty to a state charge of disrupting a meeting. A state co-defendant, Walter Fitzpatrick III of Sweetwater was convicted of state charges and was sentenced to 60 days in jail.
The men contend President Barack Obama should be removed from office because he is not a U.S. citizen and Assistant U.S. Attorney Will Mackie said Tuesday that Huff had intended to "exercise citizens arrest warrants on people up to the president."
Mackie said Huff remains a "threat" and deceived the federal court months after his arrest when he successfully asked to have electronic ankle monitoring stopped because it was hindering efforts to get a job that required wearing construction boots.
Mackie said Huff never had a job requiring boots and that deception deserves "at the very least home detention and electronic monitoring."
Defense attorney Paula Voss said Huff did not deceive anyone, adding he instead got a job working with T-shirts and that prosecutors "apparently don't like his political activity."
The judge also left open the possibility that Huff would be allowed to travel to speak at political rallies, possibly in other states, and to sell T-shirts with political messages for income.
A federal probation officer, Joseph Best, testified that Huff is restricted to North Georgia and was allowed travel as needed to court hearings in Monroe County. He said Huff has obeyed his bond restrictions and reports to him as required. Best said one T-shirt that Huff showed him had the message, "Patriotism is not a spectator sport."
Best said Huff told him that as a militia chaplain he wanted to attend rallies to speak and sell T-shirts and recently received permission to attend an Ozark tea party rally in Arkansas. Best said Huff ended up not going.
An FBI agent's affidavit in court records shows that Huff told agents he and others planned to travel to Madisonville in Monroe County "to assist Fitzpatrick" in making citizens arrests and to assist in getting charges against Fitzpatrick dropped.
The record shows Huff said that "if they had enough armed people they were going to take over the Monroe County Courthouse."
According to the FBI affidavit, Huff went to the courthouse wearing a pistol, carrying a copy of arrest warrants signed by Fitzpatrick that listed federal, state and local officers as "domestic enemies of the United States engaged in treason." The affidavit says Huff was supporting Fitzpatrick after the Tennessee man's effort to arrest a grand jury foreman who refused to indict President Barack Obama on treason charges related to his citizenship.
Huff also said he had an AK-47 and ammunition in the tool box of his truck and that he had the right to take it out to protect himself.
Huff when arrested claimed he was a member of Oath Keepers, which the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch website has identified as an extremist anti-government group.