Judge relaxes arrest rules in courthouse takeover

By Bill Poovey

KNOXVILLE — A judge relaxed the house arrest of a Georgia man charged with bringing a gun to Tennessee for a plot to take over a county courthouse, ruling Tuesday that he can remove his ankle monitoring bracelet so he can find a job.

Darren Wesley Huff Jr. of Dallas, Ga., pleaded not guilty to a superceding indictment at a hearing on firearms charges related to his April arrest. Trial was set for Jan. 10.

Despite Assistant U.S. Attorney Will Mackie arguing that Huff was a member of a militant group and had expressed violent intent when arrested, U.S. Magistrate Bruce Guyton agreed to let Huff remove an electronic monitor and keep it off if he finds work within a week. Huff said he cannot wear a protective work boot with the monitor.

Mackie, Huff and federal defender Paula R. Voss of Knoxville declined comment after the hearing.

Huff was arrested April 20 after about a dozen armed people gathered at the courthouse. Earlier that day, Huff had a pistol during a traffic stop and told officers he also had an AK-47 in his truck. He said he and others planned to take over the Monroe County Courthouse and arrest “domestic enemies of the United States engaged in treason.”

In Huff’s federal case, an FBI agent’s affidavit said Huff told the traffic stop officers that he and others were traveling to Madisonville to assist military retiree Walter F. Fitzpatrick in making citizens arrests.

The affidavit says a drug task force officer involved in the traffic stop said Huff was carrying a copy of arrest warrants that had been signed by Fitzpatrick. The record shows Huff said that “if they had enough armed people they were going to take over the Monroe County Courthouse.”

“There were 24 federal, state and local officers listed on the complaint and arrest warrant who were charged with being declared domestic enemies of the United States engaged in treason,” the affidavit said.

Huff and Fitzpatrick, who has been trying to get a local grand jury to try to remove President Barack Obama over claims he wasn’t born in the U.S., have also been indicted on state charges in Monroe County.

Both are charged with inciting a riot and disrupting a closed grand jury meeting in Madisonville in a failed attempt to make a citizen’s arrest of the foreman.

Madisonville police Capt. Darron Bivens has said Fitzpatrick’s gripes about Obama and his demands for the Democratic president’s removal are “his claim to fame.”

The FBI agent said there is “probable cause to believe that Huff had both the intent and means to immediately carry out his threats of violence to take over” the courthouse or make the citizens arrests and traveled interstate with one or more weapons to do so.