The dramatic arrest of a defiant and self-professed sovereign citizen from Alaska made headlines in March when investigators revealed they believed the charismatic young man was poised to kidnap members of law enforcement, a state judge and their family members. Prosecutors had more than 100 hours of recordings to back up their case.
But on Monday, a superior court judge in Fairbanks ruled those recordings can't be used at trial.
"Any electronic recording of a conversation in which Cox participated, whether the recording is audio or video, is inadmissible," Judge David Stewart wrote in his two-page order.
"It deals a serious blow to the state's case," said Cox's attorney, Robert John.
A call placed to the district attorney's office in Fairbanks was not returned.
The decision is a victory for John and his client three months in the making. In July, John filed a motion with the court to suppress "all evidence from the government's illegal spying."
John argued the state's use of undercover recordings made by a confidential source who had infiltrated Cox's militia amounted to "blatant, repeated, and prolonged violation of the constitutional right to privacy guaranteed to all Alaskans."
Cox faces both state and federal charges. The state case brings accusations of conspiracy to commit murder and kidnapping; the federal case brings accusations of several weapons violations. The informant was working with the FBI at the time the audio and video recordings were made, and therein lies the problem for the state.
Although federal law allows the Justice Department to have its confidential sources record conversations with suspects without a warrant, Alaska law does not. Because state investigators relied on warrantless FBI recordings made by the informant, and because Cox had alternately not given permission for himself to be recorded, Judge Stewart ruled the secret recordings violate the Alaska Constitution.
How much effect the ruling will have on the case will be something for the attorneys to argue about, but it's possible all of the evidence gathered -- including weapons and grenades -- could get thrown out if it's shown to be "fruit of the poisonous tree."
While the state charges are the more serious against Cox, should they get substantially reduced or dismissed he still isn't likely to get out of jail anytime soon. He and his militia colleagues are being held without bail in the pending federal cases, where the tapes still appear to be fair game.
The grand jury that indicted Cox and the others never heard the tapes directly, but instead heard an investigator's account of the conversations contained on the tapes.
"I absolutely don't believe the recordings actually say what the state says they say," said John, who, like the other defense attorneys, has spent the last several months reviewing the material.
"It's kind of mind boggling that this went on for six months," John said, referring to the length of time the FBI had its informant spying on Cox. "It's not like they were recording a single conversation. They were recording his whole life."
"It's almost like the movie 'The Truman Show," he said, noting that in this case the audience members were investigators, not television viewers. "Large quantities of (Cox's) life are being recorded, and he's going on with his life, and it's being broadcast."
Contact Jill Burke at jill(at)alaskadispatch.com