Copyright 2006 Denver Publishing Company
By KEVIN VAUGHAN
Rocky Mountain News (Colorado)
Federal prosecutors are attempting to put a Denver firefighter back in jail on machine gun charges, alleging that he has “virulent anti-government philosophies” and has made statements “concerning shooting ethnic minorities as they cross the border into the United States.”
The attorney for Stan Ford, who was suspended by the Denver Fire Department after his arrest Nov. 22, disputed the assertions, saying his client is the victim of vindictive prosecutors.
“He does not advocate shooting ethnic minorities as they cross the border or at any other time,” attorney Will Hood said Wednesday. “I can also tell you he has many friends and colleagues at the fire department who are Hispanic and African-American.
“He finds that assertion to be contrary to who he is.”
As for the charge that Ford harbors “virulent anti-government philosophies,” Hood said that’s a matter of definition.
“I suppose from some quarters that would mean Democrats,” Hood said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Mackey said the statements and views attributed to Ford will be supported by surreptitious recordings made by an undercover informant.
The legal battle over whether Ford will go back to jail — he was released to a halfway house in December after posting $30,000 bail — is scheduled to be resolved at a Feb. 24 hearing in federal court.
Federal agents arrested Ford after an investigation that lasted more than two years, alleging that he sold illegal machine guns to an undercover FBI informant on three occasions in 2005: April 22, Aug. 2 and Nov. 21. He faces charges on each of those incidents as well as a fourth count that alleges investigators found a pistol in his southwest Denver home that had its serial number obliterated.
Ford also faces a showdown with federal prosecutors over statements he made to investigators during an interview that began at 5:43 a.m. the day he was arrested.
The interview was not recorded, but an FBI report summarizing the conversation includes a statement attributed to Ford in which he is alleged to have said, “I knew it was wrong, but I sold the guns anyway.”
Hood said Ford has denied making the statement.
“It’s our contention that that’s not what he said,” Hood said. “It was an unrecorded interview, and we think it’s curious that an interview in this type of investigation, that they are characterizing of this magnitude, wasn’t recorded.”
Mackey said it is FBI policy not to record interviews.
Hood has filed a motion to have the interview with Ford suppressed on two grounds: that the statement wasn’t voluntary and that it was given after investigators coerced him.
In his response, Mackey included a copy of the waiver signed by Ford, in which he acknowledged his constitutional right to remain silent, and a copy of the FBI’s report of the interview.
“Our position is it was a knowing, intelligent waiver and the statement was voluntary,” Mackey said.
After Ford’s arrest, prosecutors agreed to allow him to move to a halfway house provided that he met certain conditions.
Hood first tried in early January to have him released, bringing to court two neighbors who testified on Ford’s behalf and a federal probation officer who said the firefighter had been a model citizen in the community corrections program.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Watanabe ruled, however, that Ford posed a danger and refused to modify the terms of his bail. After that, Hood filed a new motion with U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn, again seeking his release.
That led to prosecutors’ efforts to put him back in jail — a move Hood has characterized as “somewhat retaliatory.”
“The only reason that I can discern them doing that right now is because we won’t leave the community corrections issue alone,” Hood said.
Not so, said Mackey.
He said the effort was the result of a careful re-examination of the case.
“We now believe he’s dangerous,” Mackey said.
He said when the issue goes before a judge, he intends to introduce into evidence transcripts of the surreptitious recordings made by an informant.
“It’s going to be the government’s position that what I allege there in the motions is supported by recordings,” Mackey said.
Hood said any statements made by Ford are simply a reflection of his “libertarian ethic” — and protected by the First Amendment.
“That doesn’t make you a terrorist or a subversive,” Hood said. “That just makes you someone who is exercising your constitutional rights to espouse a certain viewpoint.
“Last time I checked, this was still the United States of America.”