It appears the federal government may not yet be done pursuing federal charges against jailed militia leader Schaeffer Cox, and that it needs one of Cox's former associates to get the job done.
New details about the role Michael Anderson, 35, played in Cox's plans and what he knew about them were revealed today in a 16-page affidavit filed with the court in support of Anderson's arrest by the FBI Tuesday. Anderson had previously been jailed pending trial in a state court case against Cox and his associates alleging the group intended to capture and kill a state judge and other members of law enforcement. After a judge ruled audio and video surveillance gathered during the investigation was inadmissible, the state dropped its case against the men.
But Cox and two others remain accused of several federal weapons violations stemming from the joint state-federal investigation. Lonnie and Karen Vernon are accused in a separate federal case of plotting to kill a federal judge who oversaw a tax case in which they were involved.
Anderson is suspected of being the group's intelligence gatherer, able to swiftly track down home addresses and other information on people, someone who, at Cox's direction, maintained a hit list. On Tuesday an FBI agent told the court that a review of items seized from Anderson's home included a notebook that contained a page titled "Federal Hit List" and also the name of a Deputy U.S. Marshal stationed in Alaska.
If the government can show Cox intended to harm federal employees -- just as in the state case he was alleged to have plotted to kidnap and kill state employees -- he could face additional charges beyond those accusing him of illegally owning a machine gun, homemade silencer and grenades and of trying to obtain ever more prohibited weapons.
On Wednesday the U.S. Attorney's Office in Anchorage and the Anchorage office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed that Anderson was arrested Tuesday on a material witness warrant. The affidavit submitted in support of Anderson's arrest shows that the government wants Anderson to appear before a federal grand jury sometime this month.
Multiple efforts to locate Anderson to serve him with a subpoena failed. The government tried to call him, his friends and former associates. Calls went unreturned or people claimed to have no knowledge of Anderson's whereabouts or how to find him, and his attorneys declined to take service of the subpoena on his behalf.
Although Anderson has claimed to not be a member of Cox's Alaska Peacemaker Militia, documents found during the investigation show that Anderson is listed on the militia's "duty roster," according to the affidavit. Cox also told other militia members that Anderson had a full "target list" identifying all of the police officers, district attorneys and state judges in the Fairbanks area and that Anderson could "find anything on anyone." Investigators later discovered the surveillance conducted included home addresses, photographs and personal information.
Investigators also found operational plans for protecting Cox from prosecution or apprehension that included a deadly force policy directed toward federal agents, according to the affidavit.
During a review of items seized at Anderson's home they also found: the home address for a Fairbanks police officer, notes on the home and work addresses of a children's services worker tasked with interviewing Cox's son, a drawing of the federal building in Fairbanks, and a hand written note inside a notebook stating "I need the names of federal marshals" and suggesting that the Vernons had information that might contain the names.
Anderson's notebook included the name of a Deputy U.S. Marshal, troopers, and Transportation and Security Administration employees, presumably the same employees that once confronted Cox about his attempt to wear body armor through the security checkpoint.
After his arrest, Anderson told investigators the list wasn't meant to be used for violence, but later said he withheld it because he feared it might be used for violence. In a jailhouse phone call to his father, Anderson explained he had gotten involved with a "bad friend," that he thought the sovereignty movement was "silly" and was therefore uninvolved with it. But he feared that things he'd said on the phone might be used against him.
Anderson was located at a friend's house in Fairbanks, arrested to ensure he could be used as a "material witness in the criminal proceedings against Schaeffer Cox."
A bail hearing for Anderson, who currently faces no criminal charges, is scheduled to take place Thursday.
Anderson and four others, including Cox, were first arrested in March in connection with a state-federal investigation into militia-related threats against state and federal judges and members of law enforcement. Of the group, Anderson was the only one not facing federal charges. He was released from custody weeks ago after the state case fell apart.
A friend of Anderson's, Joshua Bennett, described an intense scene in which about two dozen heavily armed FBI agents came to his property to fetch Anderson. Anderson, his wife and two young children had been staying at the house with Bennett's family. No one but the two couples and ten children were home when the FBI showed up, Bennett said.
Why the federal government felt the need to bring Anderson in is puzzling to Bennett, who claims his friend has cooperated since his release, including with a recent subpoena to appear as a witness. Assistant U.S. Attorney Skrocki told the Fairbanks Daily News Miner that's not the case.
Material witness warrants can be used to hold individuals whose testimony is necessary in a legal proceeding and whose presence at the proceeding cannot be guaranteed by subpoena alone. They are rarely used.
In the now defunct state case, Anderson's accused role in the kidnapping and murder conspiracy was that of an information guru, someone who had researched where state troopers and others lived and the keeper of a so-called hit list. Prosecutors described Anderson, trained as an engineer, as a "lone wolf," someone who had spoken of a desire to create community fear by killing police officers in the middle of the night.
Bennett has said his friend never gave a supposed hit list to anyone, and that in the weeks and months leading up to the March arrests he had begun to distance himself from Cox, whom he didn't' trust and wanted increasingly less to do with.
Contact Jill Burke at jill(at)alaskadispatch.com