Shoemaker found guilty

By Stephen A. Martin
The Hawk Eye

Militia leader will be sentenced Dec. 15 for eight
crimes.

GALESBURG, Ill. — In one sense, militia leader Dan
Shoemaker got exactly what he wanted.

Among the first people in Illinois to be convicted of
violating the Safe Neighborhoods Act making it a
felony to carry a functioning firearm within city
limits, Shoemaker’s case became a constitutional test,
his attorney is already saying will be taken to the
court of appeals.

Shoemaker, 47, Galesburg, was convicted of eight of
the 13 counts against him. After 8 1/2 hours of
deliberation, a three-man, nine-woman jury found him
guilty of two counts of aggravated intimidation, three
counts of threatening a public official and three
counts of unlawful use of a weapon on school property.

Sentencing was set for 9:30 a.m. Dec. 15 in Knox
County District Court.

“We would have hoped for not guilty on all counts,”
said Knox County Public Defender Jim Harrell. “The
fact there were not guilty verdicts on some of the
counts indicates there was some entrapment.”

Harrell arg-ued during the three-day trial authorities
lured Shoemaker into making illegal statements so they
could prevent a June 17 demonstration in which he said
he would carry a loaded rifle around the public
squares in Galesburg and Monmouth, Ill.

“They considered entrapment, they found entrapment on
some counts,” Harrell said.

Special prosecutor Tim Huyett, appointed after Knox
County State’s Attorney Paul Mangieri stepped aside
due to his likelihood of being called as a witness,
said justice was served.

“I believe this represents a very good thing for law
enforcement,” he said. “It shows that law enforcement
can be proactive.”

Jurors, accompanied from the courthouse by deputies,
did not comment.

Former Western Illinois Militia member Trent Lawrence,
Pekin, Ill., expressed outrage after the verdict.

Lawrence is planning an armed demonstration of his own
Monday in his hometown.

“Once again, the government forces will be challenged
to allow free speech or not allow free speech,” he
said.

Shoemaker was arrested June 15 and charged with four
counts of aggravated intimidation, five counts of
threatening a public official, three counts of
unlawful use of a weapon on school property and one
count of resisting arrest.

In his closing argument, Harrell compared society to a
flock of sheep and law enforcement authorities to a
ravenous wolf.

“We’ve gotten used to the wolf,” he said. “We like the
wolf.”

He was especially critical of FBI Special Agent Gerald
Karns, who had testified he started a file on
Shoemaker with the intent of charging him before the
offenses the militia chief was charged with ever
occurred.

Karns also was the author of a memo describing a May
31 meeting between local, state and federal
authorities. That memo described a plan to “approach
Shoemaker and allow him to make statements and actions
in which he can be charged with state intimidation
laws, to attempt to keep Shoemaker in custody to avoid
the June 17 march.”

That plan, Harrell said, was a plan to entrap
Shoemaker into saying things he wouldn’t ordinarily
have said.

A transcript of a June 3 conversation showed Sheriff
Jim Thompson and Galesburg Police Chief John Schlaf
asked the militia leader several times about his
intentions.

“Poor old Dan still didn’t give them the words they
wanted,” Harrell said.

So they asked more pointed questions, he said, until
after more than a dozen attempts authorities finally
had the statements they needed to charge Shoemaker
with a crime.

Shoemaker’s political views are outside the
mainstream, Harrell admitted. But he asked the jury to
stand up for the First Amendment and not allow those
with different views to become targets of government
oppression.

“The wolf is looking you in the eye,” he said.

Huyett of the Illinois Appellate Prosecutor’s office
painted a different picture.

He said there is no doubt Shoemaker is guilty of the
weapons violations he’s accused of because of the
short amount of time — about 30 seconds — between
leaving his car locked on the Abingdon, Ill., middle
school parking lot and entering the building where
officers arrested him June 15.

Authorities found a loaded .308-caliber rifle in a
partially zipped case on the rear floorboard, a loaded
.45-caliber handgun with one round in the chamber in
the car’s glove compartment and another loaded
.45-caliber handgun in a holster on military-style web
gear stored in a gym bag in the back seat.

Since Harrell is pursuing an entrapment defense,
Huyett reminded the jurors, he’s conceding Shoemaker
committed all the elements of the crimes of which he
has been accused.

All that’s left is to prove the militia chief wasn’t
entrapped, and Huyett said that is shown through
indications of his prior disposition.

One such indication was a WQAD-TV videotape in which
Shoemaker promised to resist violently is officers
tried to arrest him or prevent his armed
demonstration, he said.

Huyett said another was the “U.S. Militiaman’s
Handbook,” a 1994 how-to for militia members which has
been found among items seized in raids from the Viper
Militia of Arizona to the Freemen of Montana.

The book includes chapters on vigilante action,
assassinations and the branding of traitors.

“This is, in fact, his blueprint,” Huyett said.

Harrell rested his case Friday morning after
presenting a videotape made of a June 3 conversation
between Shoemaker and Warren County officials.

Shoemaker waived his right to take the stand in his
own defense.

Security was considerably more lax than it was the
first day of the trial.

While four armed deputies stood in the courtroom
Wednesday, there were times Friday when there was only
one.

Deputies in black tactical gear still toted
fully-automatic weapons on the courthouse lawn, but
stood in a group wrapped up in a conversation among
themselves rather than standing on opposite corners
with their fingers next to their triggers.

Meanwhile, current and former members of the Western
Illinois Militia who had turned out to give Shoemaker
moral support casually conversed with deputies and
court officials. A couple of deputies posed for
pictures with militia supporters.