CAMDEN, N.J. - The trial of five men accused of plotting an attack on soldiers at Fort Dix will begin as scheduled on Sept. 29 despite attorneys' requests for a delay, a judge said yesterday.
Defense lawyers said they needed more time to find a new expert witness because one is being forced to bow out. Prosecutors sided with them, saying the request was reasonable because granting it would give the defense less grounds to appeal if there is a conviction.
"I'm not afraid of an appeal," said US District Judge Robert Kugler. "We could go on for years, spending millions more searching for that needle in the haystack and not finding it," added Kugler, who noted that the defense so far has cost taxpayers about $2 million.
The five defendants - all foreign-born Muslim men in their 20s who have spent much of their lives in the southern New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia - were arrested in May 2007 and accused of plotting to sneak onto Fort Dix to attack soldiers. The Army base primarily trains reservists for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They face charges including attempted murder, conspiracy, and weapons offenses and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted on all counts.
Defense lawyers appear to be planning to question the role of two paid government informants. Rocco Cipparone, who represents Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, said he is considering claiming his client was entrapped by one informant. He also said he would raise a claim that informant Mahmoud Omar was committing crimes even while working for the FBI.
Defense lawyers hired Gregory Lee, a consultant and a former federal drug enforcement agent, to examine how the informants were used and handled.
However, Lee is an Army reservist and is being called to active duty next week, with deployment to Iraq coming next month.
That presented a problem in scheduling his testimony, and then prosecutors pointed out that a Department of Defense regulation, although generally not enforced for reservists, bars military personnel from testifying against the country's interest in any trial.
Lee told the judge yesterday that to comply with the law he would not be able to testify at all.
Kugler then denied a defense request for time to find another expert in his place. The trial is expected to last for months.