Miami terrorist case ends in mistrials and acquittal

MIAMI – A homegrown terrorism case that allegedly sprouted in one of Miami’s poorest neighborhoods wilted on Thursday when a judge declared a mistrial in the prosecution of six of seven defendants.

Federal jurors acquitted one defendant in the so-called Liberty City 7 trial, but they could not agree on any of the terrorism conspiracy counts against the others.

“We believe that no further progress can be made,” the 12-member jury told U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard, ending deliberations after nine days following a two-month trial in Miami. Each, if convicted, would have faced up to 70 years in prison.

The judge ordered a retrial to begin Jan. 7 and issued a gag order.

The jurors found defendant Lyglenson Lemorin not guilty on four terrorism-related conspiracy charges. Lemorin, 32, a Haitian immigrant, cried with his attorney, Joel Defabio, after the verdict, saying they were “ecstatic.” But Lemorin won’t be immediately released because of immigration issues.

The judge’s decision was seen as a significant defeat for the Justice Department and a temporary victory for most of the defendants, who are still in custody. The U.S. attorney’s office in Miami declined to comment.

The group was arrested in June 2006 amid much fanfare by the Bush administration, which described the defendants as being as “dangerous” as al-Qaida – despite evidence showing they had no terrorism blueprints or weapons of mass destruction.

The FBI had declared the original indictment against the defendants “yet another important victory in the war on terrorism.”

At trial, prosecutors tried to prove the defendants’ mission was a conspiracy to spread “chaos and confusion” by blowing up Chicago’s Sears Tower and FBI buildings in major cities.

The defendants – a struggling group of construction laborers who tried to start a religious group in Liberty City – were charged with conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, destroy buildings with explosives and break away from the United States.

But the racially mixed, 12-member Miami-Dade panel apparently didn’t see it that way.

The jury foreman said the panel was “evenly split” on the four terrorism conspiracy counts against the remaining defendants, though it decided Lemorin was not guilty on Tuesday.

The trial turned on the role of the FBI informant, who infiltrated the Miami organization in December 2005. He was introduced to the group by a previous FBI informant, a North Miami shopkeeper who began reporting to his handlers that Batiste was talking about alleged terrorism plans.

At trial, Batiste came across as a complex, messianic-like figure, a father of four who lived in North Miami while trying to get a construction business off the ground. All the while, he was trying to start a local chapter of the Moorish Science Temple in a warehouse called “The Embassy” in Liberty City. The religion embraces the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths.

Batiste’s attorney, Ana Jhones, argued that he joined forces with the “al-Qaida representative” only because he was desperate for money. His main defense: The FBI informant entrapped him and his men in a “fabricated crime,” said Jones, calling the government’s conduct “outrageous.”

But prosecutors portrayed Batiste and his followers as wannabe terrorists bent on breaking away from the United States.