鈥楽overeign鈥� Pleads Guilty, Expects to Spend Less Than a Year in Jail for Plot to Kidnap Police Officers
A who plotted to abduct police officers in Las Vegas and execute them has pleaded guilty to his seventh felony conviction but likely will end up spending less than a year in jail.
David Allen Brutsche, a convicted sex offender from California who moved to Las Vegas to sell bottled water on the street, pleaded guilty Monday to felony conspiracy to commit kidnapping, .
Brutsche, 43, and a woman described as his roommate, 67-year-old Devon Campbell Newman, after a four-month undercover investigation.
Police said Brutsche, with six previous felony convictions, 鈥渨as committed鈥� to the antigovernment 鈥渟overeign citizens鈥� movement, considered by the FBI to be a 鈥�.鈥�
As part of the police investigation, undercover officers attended more than 30 鈥渟overeign citizen ideology classes鈥� hosted by the couple where authorities said they attempted to recruit members. Police said that secretly recorded conversations detailed plans by the couple to kidnap police officers, hold them in a crudely made jail cell in a vacant house, put them on trial in a common-law court, torture and execute them.
But the case apparently had legal weaknesses. A month after the arrests, the Clark County prosecutor dropped the two most serious charges, conspiracy to commit murder and attempted armed kidnapping, and federal charges were never brought.
Newman, a 68-year-old former paralegal who denied any affiliation with the sovereign citizens movement, pleaded guilty in December to a misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to commit false imprisonment. She was sentenced to one year probation and released from jail.
Newman鈥檚 court-appointed attorney, Carl Arnold, said 180 hours of police recordings he reviewed didn't show that Newman and Brutsche conspired to commit a crime.
At Monday鈥檚 hearing, Brutsche continued to act as his own attorney 鈥� a common hallmark of sovereign citizens, who generally tend to reject legal authority and believe government has no control over them. Brutsche previously has said in court that he is a sovereign citizen but not part of 鈥渁ny organized movement,鈥� the AP reported.
In confessing to his role in the police-kidnap plot, Brutsche told Clark County District Court Judge Elissa Cadish, 鈥淚 wouldn't have gone through with it.鈥�
鈥淚 do plead guilty,鈥� Brutsche told the judge, adding that he thought he was a victim of police entrapment, according to the wire service account.
His guilty plea was linked to an earlier guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of failing to register as a sex offender, said prosecutor Thomas Carroll.
As part of the plea deal, Brutsche is expected to receive up to five years' probation and a year in the county jail on the sex offender charge when he is sentenced in April. With that sentence, he could be out of jail by August.
