Feds fails to sway jurors about launchers
VERDICT: Federal probe continues into Security Aviation's activities.
By LISA DEMER and RICHARD MAUER
Anchorage Daily News
Published: May 27, 2006
Last Modified: May 27, 2006 at 04:56 AM
A federal jury on Friday found Security Aviation and company principal Rob Kane not guilty of all charges related to two rocket launchers that the government said they had illegally possessed and transported.
A dozen jurors had to decide whether the two rocket launchers that sat in the courtroom throughout the trial were dangerous destructive devices, as the government said, or harmless tubes, no worse than plastic pipe that could also be rigged to fire a rocket, as the defense contended. Each launcher had tubes for up to 16 rockets encased in a metal pod.
The verdict came just a day after the case went to the jury. It was a blow to the government, which conducted massive, multi-agency raids on Security Aviation and related companies Feb. 2 after an FBI agent briefly went undercover and confirmed the launchers were still at Security's Palmer hangar. At the time of the raids and Kane's arrest, the government also had evidence from several former employees that Security officials were thinking of packing up the company's fleet of L-39 Czech military jets and taking them to the Philippines.
The rocket launchers were purchased for the jets, vintage Cold War aircraft used by Warsaw Pact and Third World countries as military trainers and ground-attack warplanes. But Security Aviation officials say the government misinterpreted the company's intentions.
In any event, the investigation remains active. The government has been sifting through seized company records for information about the source of the tens of millions of dollars spent over the last year to transform a small Anchorage air charter company into an international operation with trans-oceanic executive jets, helicopters, and top employees who boasted about paramilitary exploits and CIA connections.
U.S. District Judge John W. Sedwick praised the lawyers on both sides. "All of you have worked very hard," he said. And of the jury verdict, he said, "I think justice has been done in this case."
Kane, who scrawled notes throughout the nine-day trial, teared up as the verdicts were read.
When it was over, Kane and company owner Mark Avery embraced, with Kane tapping Avery on the back of his head.
"Now I can go home," said Kane, who was jailed after his Feb. 2 arrest then released on bail a month later to the custody of a real estate broker, Charles Sandberg, in Anchorage. His family remained in Eagle River. He said he needed a few days to think about his situation before commenting further.
Several jurors interviewed as they left the Federal Building or later at home said the government failed to lay out a standard for how to demilitarize the launchers to make them legal. Instead, they heard technically complex and sometimes contradictory testimony from government witnesses. An officer with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the agency that regulates weapons, told jurors decisions are case by case.
Jurors also said it simply wasn't clear whether the launchers alone -- without rockets, planes or other parts -- were truly "destructive devices."
"That pod sitting in that courtroom would not fire anything. It would not be destructive in any way," said juror No. 9, Lori Henderson of Anchorage. "They obviously didn't have enough evidence."
Jurors started their deliberations split, said juror No. 12, Walter Witte, an aircraft mechanic in Anchorage. He started out in the minority, which leaned toward guilty verdicts. But "we couldn't find the evidence to say what we were holding out for," Witte said. After roughly 11 hours of deliberations, all the jurors agreed the government hadn't proven the launchers were destructive devices, Witte said.
One of Kane's lawyers, Kevin Fitzgerald, said, "I think this investigation spun way out of control and could have been stopped at any point."
Acting U.S. Attorney Deborah Smith said the investigation into Security Aviation continues. The government will not return the rocket launchers because the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms considers them destructive devices, she said. The forfeiture case brought by her office against Security for the two L-39 military jets still in government possession "is still pending," she said.
Jurors heard testimony that those two jets still had weapons components and wiring. At one point, Security had a dozen L-39s but four were repossessed by the seller.
Witnesses on both sides said the company hoped to win contracts to use the jets in military training exercises in the United States and the Philippines.
The launchers were just for show, witnesses said. They were bought off an eBay ad that described them as "de-mil'd," which also played into the jury's decision.
After the verdicts, Avery, an attorney himself, said he was pleased by the outcome. Over years of working as a state and municipal prosecutor, Avery said, he had become jaded and "fed up" with the criminal justice system. He had come to believe "a trial is not about the truth."
But this case was different, Avery said. "Everybody at the trial told the truth, except for one guy," Avery said, singling out key government witness John Berens, the chief mechanic for Security's L-39 fleet. Berens, a former Air Force mechanic, testified that he warned company officials that the rocket launchers were operational.
Avery said Security Aviation and his other businesses would survive.
"We're so thankful for all the people that have supported us," he said.
But he also recognized that the investigation would continue. "The government is in control," he said. "It's their game."
As he has done before, he refused to identify the sources of money for the phenomenal growth of his companies over the last year.
He said he planned to ask the government to return everything that was seized, including the remaining two L-39 jets and the rocket pods.
Avery said he remains "confused" about why the investigation began in the first place, though he acknowledged that he, Kane, and some employees had talked about secret international missions, money from trusts, and other so-far unexplained activities. And, he said, Kane, his partner, doesn't always make a good impression.
"Rob is an odd bird," Avery said. "You can quote me on that."