Full solidarity from THE REAL SCOTTISH DEFENCE LEAGUE with Chicago Anti-Racist Action activists who are facing jail time after being charged with an attack on a neo-Nazi meeting.
5 plead guilty in anti-racist attack at Tinley Park restaurant
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 Top row: Cody Sutherlin, Jason Sutherlin and Dylan Sutherlin. Bottom row: Alex Robert Stuck and John Steve Tucker have been charged in connection with a mob attack at the Ashford House Restaurant Saturday in Tinley Park. Police are still seeking about a dozen people who attacked what they believed to be a gathering of white supremacists. (Tinley Park Police Dept.) |
5:12 p.m. CST, January 4, 2013
Five men charged in connection with a brawl between alleged white supremacists and anti-racists inside a Tinley Park restaurant pleaded guilty today and will serve sentences ranging from 3 ½ to 6 years in prison.
At a hearing on a motion to suppress evidence in the case Friday, brothers Dylan, Cody and Jason Sutherlin and co-defendants Alex Stuck and John S. Tucker all agreed to plea deals with prosecutors, pleading guilty to three of the 37 counts they were charged with.
“We were ready to go to trial,” said Brian Barrido, lawyer for Dylan Sutherlin. “I was very surprised when they said they wanted to take the plea … but I think they did the math, and if the trial didn’t start for a year or six months, they might be out just as soon” as they would under the plea deal.
The five men, all from the Bloomington, Ind., area, are members of the Hoosier Anti-Racist Movement, and had driven to Tinley Park May 19 to confront a group of alleged white supremacists who had planned to meet at the restaurant.
The Sutherlins have maintained they had planned to stage a “peaceful protest,” but security video shows as many as 18 men entering Ashford House, some wearing masks and carrying batons and other club-like objects. Within minutes, a melee broke out among the two groups, and several bystanders also were injured in the scuffle.
In all, the five men faced 37 felony counts, and prosecutors pushed for maximum sentences of 7 years on each, based on the most serious charge, armed violence. The five had balked at that sentence, and their attorneys, all working for free, had planned to go to trial, Barrido said.
As at previous hearings in the case, a crowd of supporters filled the courtroom, many of whom had written character references attesting to the men’s work with charitable organizations — including a domestic violence shelter, Barrido said.
Jason Sutherlin received a 6-year sentence, Dylan and Cody Sutherlin were sentenced to 5 years each, and Stuck and Tucker each received 3 ½ years.
agrimm@tribune.com
At a hearing on a motion to suppress evidence in the case Friday, brothers Dylan, Cody and Jason Sutherlin and co-defendants Alex Stuck and John S. Tucker all agreed to plea deals with prosecutors, pleading guilty to three of the 37 counts they were charged with.
“We were ready to go to trial,” said Brian Barrido, lawyer for Dylan Sutherlin. “I was very surprised when they said they wanted to take the plea … but I think they did the math, and if the trial didn’t start for a year or six months, they might be out just as soon” as they would under the plea deal.
The five men, all from the Bloomington, Ind., area, are members of the Hoosier Anti-Racist Movement, and had driven to Tinley Park May 19 to confront a group of alleged white supremacists who had planned to meet at the restaurant.
The Sutherlins have maintained they had planned to stage a “peaceful protest,” but security video shows as many as 18 men entering Ashford House, some wearing masks and carrying batons and other club-like objects. Within minutes, a melee broke out among the two groups, and several bystanders also were injured in the scuffle.
In all, the five men faced 37 felony counts, and prosecutors pushed for maximum sentences of 7 years on each, based on the most serious charge, armed violence. The five had balked at that sentence, and their attorneys, all working for free, had planned to go to trial, Barrido said.
As at previous hearings in the case, a crowd of supporters filled the courtroom, many of whom had written character references attesting to the men’s work with charitable organizations — including a domestic violence shelter, Barrido said.
Jason Sutherlin received a 6-year sentence, Dylan and Cody Sutherlin were sentenced to 5 years each, and Stuck and Tucker each received 3 ½ years.
agrimm@tribune.com
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