Jun 20, 2008 12:17 pm US/Eastern
Terror Suspects Argue Over Police Statements
Alleged Fort Dix Plotters Disagree Over Using Statements As Evidence
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) ―
-
-
William Thomas Cain/Getty Images
One of the men accused of plotting an attack on soldiers on Fort Dix thinks records of his conversations with a Philadelphia police officer may help clear him.
But a co-defendant is asking that any such notes be barred from a trial.
Serdar Tatar's request for the Philadelphia police to produce the records and Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer's to bar their use were filed late Thursday and early Friday in U.S. District Court. They're among many pretrial motions expected to be filed in the case by Saturday.
The filings provide perhaps the clearest view yet of how defense lawyers may attack the case of federal prosecutors.
Until now, the five men arrested in May 2007 and charged with plotting to kill soldiers on the New Jersey installation have not shown any disputes among them as they have prepared for trial. The latest motions, though, reveal that some of them have interests at odds with one another.
The five men are all foreign born Muslims -- three of them ethnic Albanians from the former Yugoslavia -- in their 20s who met at Cherry Hill West High School in the 1990s and lived much of their lives in New Jersey. They face life in prison if they're convicted of the most serious charges they face: attempted murder and conspiracy to murder military personnel.
Government investigators have portrayed Shnewer, a cab driver, at the center of the alleged plot -- the one who had the most contact with the government informant. And of the five defendants, Tatar appeared to be the most distant. He lived in Philadelphia as the others were in New Jersey and claims that he did not join the others on a February 2007 trip to the Pocono Mountains where authorities say training for the plot took place.
The differences between Shnewer and Tatar date to November 2006. That's when Tatar, a 7-Eleven store manager in Philadelphia, told first a police officer who frequented his store, and later the FBI, that a man later revealed to be a government informant, had asked him to get a map of Fort Dix for "some type of terrorist attack."
Tatar, who wanted to become a police officer and applied for jobs in the forces in Philadelphia, Oakland, Calif., and the Temple University Police, continued to speak with Philadelphia police Sgt. Sean Dandridge.
According to government documents, Tatar eventually did provide the map from his father's pizza shop, located near the military installation.
Tatar says that his conversations around that time with Dandridge may help show he was innocent. He has asked for any reports Dandridge filed about their conversations and for his handwritten notes.
But Shnewer's lawyer, Rocco Cipparone, argues that those reports or notes should not be allowed at trial because they do not support the government's case. "If anything, Tatar was trying with the interaction with Dandridge and the FBI to distance himself from the now alleged conspiracy," Cipparone wrote.
Shnewer also asked for Tatar's statements to authorities when he was arrested to be barred from trial. Tatar told authorities that Shnewer is "excitable," an "idiot," and someone who would "shoot a sheep to see what happens."
Shnewer has asked for his case to be tried separately from Tatar's if those statements are not barred from evidence.
The two men, along with the brothers Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka, are scheduled to be tried in U.S. District Court in Camden beginning in late September. In other legal motions, the men have asked for other evidence and references to al-Qaida to be excluded and for the trial to be moved away from southern New Jersey.
The U.S. Attorney's Office has said it will respond to the men's motions only through its own legal filings, which are due July 18.
Tatar and Shnewer do agree on one thing.
Both are asking for a phone conversation between the two of them intercepted by federal investigators to be disallowed from use in the trial. It was captured by authorities under a law used to spy on foreign nationals. But Shnewer is a U.S. citizen and Tatar a legal resident.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
2009 Celebrity Deaths
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Comments