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| Photo Credit: AP. |
A Judge Friday dismissed a juror from the Jury hearing the trial of three men in connection with a 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer following allegations by attorneys that she was flirting with one of the defendants, The Associated Press reported.
Judge Thomas
Wilson said the woman has been removed from the jury, two days after attorneys
raised concerns that the juror was having too much non-verbal communication with
defendant Paul Bellar, according to a report by the Jackson Citizen Patriot.
“It didn’t
just happen on one day — it happened over multiple days,” Wilson said of the
juror’s behavior, according to The Associated Press. “I decided it’s safer to
err on the side of caution.”
Wilson said
the woman’s behavior was wrong, noting that he has never seen such behavior in
nearly 35 years of practicing law.
24-year-old
Bellar is standing trial with co-defendants Joseph Morrison and Pete Musico. The
three men were charged in connection with providing material support for a
terrorist act. The men who are currently arraigned in state court in Jackson,
Michigan have pleaded not guilty to the plot, maintaining that they were
entrapped by an FBI informant and his handlers, according to The Associated
Press.
Others in
the courtroom including Wilson and Bellar’s attorney, Andrew Kirkpatrick
confirmed they had seen interactions between the two since the trial began.
The suspects
communicated regularly with other anti-government extremists, angered with
Whitmer and various public officials over COVID-19 restrictions during the
pandemic. The suspects had sought to sow chaos in the country and possibly trigger
a civil war with the potential kidnap of Michigan Democratic Governor Whitmer.
In August
two other suspects in the plot Adam Fox and Barry Croft were convicted at a
second trial in Grand Rapids, Michigan, following Ty Garbin’s testimony who was
convicted of the same plot, according to The Associated Press.
He said the
goal was to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from her vacation home and spark a
civil war, known among right-wing extremists as the “boogaloo,” but the plot
was stopped by the FBI because it had agents and informants inside the group.