Schaeffer Cox trial underway in Alaska

[Lambkin]

http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_new ... f6878.html

Schaeffer Cox has recanted the account of mental illness he gave at his federal sentencing hearing.

In a 13-page letter from the U.S. Penitentiary in Marion, Ill., posted on the “Stand by Schaeffer Cox” Facebook page, the former Fairbanks militia leader and political hopeful maintained his innocence and gave a detailed account of the years-long investigation that led to his conviction for conspiring to murder federal employees.

[fortinbras]

It turns out that Cox's lengthy letter repudiating his talk of mental illness AND his confession .....
https://www.facebook.com/groups/standby ... 231476376/
.... is a drearily ego-centric fantasy appeal to Amnesty International to help him because he is nought but a "young political prisoner" who managed to attract a substantial following because of his enormous charisma and therefore is being crushed by the oppressive American govt.

I repeat it here partly because Facebook is so contrived that it frustrates efforts at a direct print-out:

Amnesty International - 350 Sansome St., Suite 210 – San Francisco CA 94104
Re: Please Consider Case – November 2, 2013

Dear Sir or Madam:

My name is Schaeffer Cox. I am a young political prisoner from Alaska. I have a wife and two small children. I am currently being held in a highly secretive prison unit for political or high profile prisoners called the “Communication Management Unit,” or “CMU”. The purpose of the CMU is to censor one’s communication with the outside world, especially with attorneys or members of the press. It is my great hope that if this letter safely reaches you, you would give diligent consideration to the possibility of rendering me what assistance you are able.
I haven’t done anything illegal and I most definitely haven’t done anything morally wrong. I just made some extraordinarily power people extraordinarily angry with my extraordinarily idealistic charisma.

In 2008 I ran for the Alaska State House of Representatives. I came in 2nd in a 3 way race with roughly 38% of the vote. This was not bad for a 24 year old political newcomer with very little support from Party Establishment.

My relative success is likely attributable to the fact that I loved knocking on doors in my district, something few candidates will even do. Though from where I sit now I question whether anything I did can really be called a success at all.

After the election I needed something to do with all the money and support I had raised. The next election wasn’t for 2 years. So I tried to keep the energy going by organizing several groups that focused on Bill of Rights issues as well as whatever else had popular interest.
One such area of popular concern was police corruption, especially in the area of drug trafficking and sales. So at 25, with my enthusiasm surpassed only by my naivete, I devised a “brilliant” way to out the dirty cops by setting up hundreds of hometown people with a sort of video twitter we called “The Liberty Bell System.” Less than a week later the State Wide Drug Enforcement Unit opened an “investigation” on me. Now at this point mind you, I’m Duddley Do-Right Boy Scout who had never even smoked a cigarette let alone had anything to do with drugs.

Consequently the State drug cops, being unable to obtain a warrant due to a lack of probable cause, had difficulty furthering their efforts. So I was passed off to the FBI who are allowed to run cameras and listening devise into people’s homes without a warrant or even reasonable suspicion, which is just what they did to me. They also became very aggressive about sending undercover provocateurs who tried to convince me I was doing things all wrong and that acting out violently was the only way to make things change. When that failed they tried to provoke me by going after my children. Though this really shook me up bad, I still managed to refuse to respond to their escalating provocations until several undercover agents threatened to kill me if I didn’t join them in attacking the government. Fearing for our lives, my family and I tried to flee the country but were caught before we made it to Canada. I was arrested and sentenced to 26 years in prison for “Conspiring against the government.”

While the prosecutor admitted I had refused to act out violently and had in fact said repeatedly that I was “going to be like Gandhi, not like Rambo,” he argued that the only reason I hadn’t attacked the government was because I didn’t have the capability to actually pull such a thing off. He then waxed spooky as he imagined what a murderous revolutionary I would become if given enough time. Reality faded into the background as everyone argued about hypothetical crimes in hypothetical futures and what was in my heart. The crimes in this case were abstract fantasy but what’s left is a concrete reality, a concrete room with a concrete floor, a concrete ceiling and a concrete bed. Here I sit. This is the only thing that’s real.

I know I was fantastically naïve and foolish. I have included a copy of my story along with excerpts from supporting legal documents. I have also included a copy of a letter I sent to Rolling Stone magazine that you may find interesting. If after an initial review you have questions or would like further documentation, please write me back and I will see to it that you get what you need.

With, Great Respect – Schaeffer Cox

[grixit]

Ok, these folks are still being Gandhi. I wonder how long it will take for them to start being Mandela.

[akbill]

Ahh the crazy continues

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/2 ... misconduct

Looks like Schaeffer wants to fire his new attorney and go with a the whole government is corrupt defense

New attorney fires back with a competency hearing request my vote is for the attorney here

[notorial dissent]

Schaeffer has been playing that game pretty much from day one. He has spent, it appears, all of his life trading on his choir boy appearance, and his "who me I wouldn't do anything like that" con. He can present the appearance of pure innocence, but it would appear to all be a well honed and practiced facade. I would suspect that he is trying to blame the attorney for his losing streak, since he couldn't possibly have been found guilty if there hadn't been corruption in the trial. I don't think he has a chance of pulling it off, but it will be interesting to see what he tries now. Apparently he doesn't like his current accommodations and companions. Poor dear!!!

[Cathulhu]

I honestly think his disconnection from reality was such that he simply could not grasp the probability of going to prison for a long, long, time. When he'd been in long enough for this to begin sinking in, he immediately started trying for a game-changer, as he finds this particular reality unacceptable and therefore must change it. I don't for one second doubt that he's preaching the revolution even more passionately than before he got busted for it, as he likely figures now that violent revolution is his best bet for getting out in less than many years.

[akbill]

His largest issue is his narcissism he cannot fathom how he could be wrong therefor he's not I saw him do the same thing when he got busted for domestic abuse on his wife and again when they arrested him for not declaring his concealed weapon. I don't know how much revolution he's preaching these days there was some direction from him to his followers to down play the sovereign citizens angle. He's nuts but not stupid I think thats what makes him as dangerous as he is.

I do think his new Attorney will have him ruled incompetent then we won't hear much from him again. Thats my hope but he just seems like the gift that keeps on giving but who knows maybe the'll get him on some Meds and he can spend the next 24 years learning how to be a normal human being.

[Lambkin]

Welcome to Quatloos, akbill.

Somehow I doubt that 24 years in a penitentiary will result in a normal human being.

[Famspear]

Welcome to Quatloos, akbill.

Somehow I doubt that 24 years in a penitentiary will result in a normal human being.

I can hardly wait until September 9, 2033, to find out.

That's the projected release date for Francis August Schaeffer Cox, inmate #16179-006, if he's a good boy and can get out early.

[notorial dissent]

That's the projected release date for Francis August Schaeffer Cox, inmate #16179-006, if he's a good boy and can get out early.

And the likelihood of that would be????

[akbill]

Welcome to Quatloos, akbill.

Somehow I doubt that 24 years in a penitentiary will result in a normal human being.

I agree but I have hope. I worked this guys case and believe strongly that he is one of the evilest people on this planet. But since we are going to let him out my wish for our sake and his children is that he would try to fix himself.... I do know better though and chances are he'll get out and go right back to Denny's .....

[Lambkin]

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/2 ... aeffer-cox

A lawyer representing Schaeffer Cox says the former leader of a small Fairbanks militia is mentally ill and will “eventually reject the advice of any new counsel if counsel does not fully accept Mr. Cox’s delusions as true.”

Cox said he is a victim of a government conspiracy. He is preoccupied with the notion that the government targeted him for death, with what she referred to as a “phantom hit squad,” because of his political beliefs, Elliott said.

“As soon as his counsel challenges these perceptions, he rejects counsel’s advice and becomes convinced that counsel has become part of the plot against him,” she wrote.

[notorial dissent]

I don't know if the paranoia is real or feigned, but I very much believe the above two statements are very true. The biggest problem here is that Cox is more than smart enough to be able to fake all this, and would have no compunctions about doing so. I am becoming more and more convinced he is a true sociopath, and is equally a master manipulator. I am convinced that he is a very dangerous and nasty piece of work one way or another.

[davids]

I don't know if the paranoia is real or feigned, but I very much believe the above two statements are very true. The biggest problem here is that Cox is more than smart enough to be able to fake all this, and would have no compunctions about doing so. I am becoming more and more convinced he is a true sociopath, and is equally a master manipulator. I am convinced that he is a very dangerous and nasty piece of work one way or another.

I don't mean to be contrary, but I truly don't believe the guy is all that dangerous. And I believe he may be slightly mentally ill, but we all deal day-to-day with people who are "that" but perhaps in a different way. Certainly, being locked up could only worsen that, and may even trigger it.

But I don't see that he has masterfully manipulated anything. He had a following among the young, believe-anything anarchist faction of the libertarian wing of reality. These are the same kinds of people who think everything is a conspiracy, that Obama is Kenyan, that Paul Walker was murdered by a drone strike, etc. They, like all sovereign citizens, believe you really can say mumbo jumbo and become your own country, i.e., sovereign, and that even if you can't, well it should be that way, anyway. That is their mindset and that is the one he has. Their stock in trade is talking about doing things that don't ever happen and can't ever happen.

Given that I don't think he is dangerous, I also think his sentence is a bit extreme. While some punishment is appropriate, there again is the fact that no aspect of his "2 for 1" plan ever came to fruition. Further, the attention he initially garnered was due to him trying too hard to impress the chicks and younguns at a junior sov cit type meeting, and the claims which got the attention turned up to be largely false.

I do agree he can behave as if he is delusional, and I remember watching the youtube of his maniacal courtroom speech, where he spoke to the judge as if he was in some kind of international criminal court trying to negotiate with a foreign leader. Why people follow such idiots without question - is an interesting related topic here as well.

[notorial dissent]

I rather suspect our definitions and perceptions of this are, to be generous, totally apposite. I will agree with you to a point on one thing, I do thing Cox is mentally ill, except that my sense is that he is totally bereft of all conscience and societal governance. My personal suspicion is that he is a true sociopath, as his behavior prior to his latest episode has proven. He has no concern for anyone or anything except himself, and as was pointed out at the trial, he is quite happy to use his choir boy good looks and smothering charm to induce whoever he is focusing on to do whatever it is he wants, since he is such a wonderful person that they just can’t resist him, at least in his mind. He was and is a very charismatic and charming individual, something he learned very well at his father’s, the minister, knee, and he uses it at every possible instance to his best advantage.

AS to dangerous, I think being able to convince two other, admittedly dim and gullible individuals, to willingly carry, under his instruction, out what amounts to multiple murders, and would have been in fact acts of political terrorism, for which they too have been caught and dealt with by the way, constitutes a very real level of danger I am not willing to pretend doesn’t exist.

Poor little Schaefer is not in the least picked on or abused in any of this, although he is more than willing to play that particular card if it will win him some sympathy, which is what he is all about, being the sympathetic victim.

I’m very much afraid, on this one, we will have to agree to disagree.

[Lambkin]

More re: the above
http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_new ... f1ba9.html

[davids]

I rather suspect our definitions and perceptions of this are, to be generous, totally apposite. I will agree with you to a point on one thing, I do thing Cox is mentally ill, except that my sense is that he is totally bereft of all conscience and societal governance.

Not sure what "definitions" you are referring to. I'm not saying he's a wonderful person - far from it. I also don't claim to be psychologist. Certainly his intent was to be manipulative but when dealing with conspiracy wackos, they likely put up all the resistance of a bowl of oatmeal to any such attempted manipulation. It's good he was stopped, regardless.

[akbill]

I don't know if the paranoia is real or feigned, but I very much believe the above two statements are very true. The biggest problem here is that Cox is more than smart enough to be able to fake all this, and would have no compunctions about doing so. I am becoming more and more convinced he is a true sociopath, and is equally a master manipulator. I am convinced that he is a very dangerous and nasty piece of work one way or another.

I don't mean to be contrary, but I truly don't believe the guy is all that dangerous. And I believe he may be slightly mentally ill, but we all deal day-to-day with people who are "that" but perhaps in a different way. Certainly, being locked up could only worsen that, and may even trigger it.

But I don't see that he has masterfully manipulated anything. He had a following among the young, believe-anything anarchist faction of the libertarian wing of reality. These are the same kinds of people who think everything is a conspiracy, that Obama is Kenyan, that Paul Walker was murdered by a drone strike, etc. They, like all sovereign citizens, believe you really can say mumbo jumbo and become your own country, i.e., sovereign, and that even if you can't, well it should be that way, anyway. That is their mindset and that is the one he has. Their stock in trade is talking about doing things that don't ever happen and can't ever happen.

Given that I don't think he is dangerous, I also think his sentence is a bit extreme. While some punishment is appropriate, there again is the fact that no aspect of his "2 for 1" plan ever came to fruition. Further, the attention he initially garnered was due to him trying too hard to impress the chicks and younguns at a junior sov cit type meeting, and the claims which got the attention turned up to be largely false.

I do agree he can behave as if he is delusional, and I remember watching the youtube of his maniacal courtroom speech, where he spoke to the judge as if he was in some kind of international criminal court trying to negotiate with a foreign leader. Why people follow such idiots without question - is an interesting related topic here as well.

I dealt with this guy directly on quite a few occasions. He is extremely dangerous, I believe he would have sat back and directed his men to kill people he had an issue with. I believe that because he said thats what he wanted me to do! I have worked some other cases since his, but out of all the crazy SC folks I've dealt with Cox is the only one I can say for certain was just evil.

[akbill]

You right about his initial claims being untrue but when we went to verify that was the first time we heard all the stuff about arresting and trying judges and boarding up the houses of law enforcement and burning them alive with there families inside.

As for him being manipulative it wasn't young people he had following him it was 40 year old men with jobs and families and 60 year old guys with the same it's not like the guy had a bunch of 20 somethings enlisted in his little band of idiots. The best comparison I have for Schaeffer Cox is Charles Manson the only difference is we got him prior to his followers killing a bunch of people.

[davids]

akbill - it's hard to argue with that. If you've dealt with him personally, that means a lot. But more importantly, I'll have to therefore be the first person to ever change his mind in the history of internet forum discussions. Thanks for your input.