WREX.com – Rockford’s News LeaderOne Mahon denied bail, the other granted

One Mahon denied bail, the other granted

By Bob Schaper

ROCKFORD (WREX) -- One brother gets bail and the other is denied in a case of domestic terrorism.

Federal agents raided the home of Dennis and Daniel Mahon last Thursday, charging them both with conspiracy to damage buildings and property with explosives. Today the prosecution laid out a long list of reasons why the Mahons present a danger to the community and shouldn't be released on bond. When it came to Dennis Mahon the judge agreed.

Daniel Mahon's attorney, Denny Ryan, agreed with the judge who set bond at $50,000 for his client. "They have a history of political views, however unsavory and unpopular they might be, it's their right to have them," he said.

Both Ryan and fellow attorney Robert Fagan argued that the weapons and recorded hate speech presented by the prosecution at the detention hearing didn't amount to crimes. He said whatever the Mahons told to undercover agents and government informants was just "Drunken prattle."

But U.S. attorney in charge John McKenzie read a long list of weapons and propoganda discovered last Thursday when the Mahons were arrested. They included two homemade hand grenades that Dennis Mahon allegedly discussed throwing at an immigration rally.

Fagan said if the brothers really were violent they wouldn't have surrendered. But McKenzie countered that the brothers regret the decision to surrender. He says they were secretly recorded in a police vehicle after their arrest saying, "We should have had a shootout."

The Mahons are accused of conspiring in a 2004 explosion inside a government building in Scottsdale, Arizona, where the city's director of diversity and dialogue received a bomb in the mail.

There'll be a hearing on Monday morning to make sure the $50,000 used to bailout Daniel Mahon is from a legitimate source. If it is, he'll be free to go.