Guilty of three felonies, gets slap on wrist
Local leaders and activists last week condemned a judge’s decision to sentence a 26-year-old white man to probation for possessing explosive devices and planning a targeted attack on minorities and people involved with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Cameron Swoboda was arrested in June 2020 after charges were filed alleging that he constructed “homemade explosives” and targeted BLM protesters that same month, during the time that local activists were protesting after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.
The court eventually reduced his $50,000 bond to $5,000 and he was released from custody in August, under the mandate that he undergo alcohol abuse treatment in addition to psychological treatment.
In mid-May Swoboda pleaded guilty to those charges — three felony counts of unlawful possession, transport, manufacture, repair or sale of an illegal weapon.
St. Charles County Circuit Court Judge Deborah Allesi then handed him two consecutive seven-year suspended prison sentences and credit for time served, along with five years of probation. This means if he complies with probation the prison sentences will be dismissed, if he doesn’t he will have to serve the 14 years in prison.
The group of activists, clergy and NAACP leaders who gathered last week in protest called upon the federal government to step in and act. They also pressed the United States Attorney Sayler Fleming to review the case for possible hate crime violations.
“Our groups have made a formal request to the United States Attorney for some assurance that protesters are safe,” said Rev. Darryl Gray in a media release. “Swoboda committed a hate crime, why wasn’t he charged appropriately. Judge Allesi’s decision puts the safety of BLM advocates in imminent and severe jeopardy.”
“This person was on the hunt for activists and the judge just sends him back to his basement to make more bombs. This is totally unacceptable.” -Rev. Darryl Gray
Tim Lohmar, St. Charles County prosecuting attorney, said he believes that the type of crime he was charged with, plus the facts of the case, just didn’t fall within the scope of what’s legally considered a hate crime. He said it was clear Swoboda was in the middle of a mental health crisis.
“First of all you’ve got to prove a specific protected group of people was targeted … we don’t have that [here],” he said. “… This one wasn’t so clear cut, he was making some delusional statements that were concerning and very alarming but didn’t rise to the level of putting any one group of people directly at risk of being victimized.”
He said that if sentenced to prison, Swoboda could be released after having only served about 15-20 percent of the sentence — and the prosecutor believed that probation offered a more intensive, thorough monitoring of the man for a longer period of time.
Gray and other civil rights activists also expressed concern about the disparity in sentencing between white and non-white defendants.
“Here in St. Charles County, race has absolutely nothing to do with anything,” Lohmar said. “In fact, I wouldn’t know the race of this particular defendant until I read their press release. I think the biggest takeaway is each of these cases has their own set of particular circumstances and we can’t just have a cookie cutter outcome for all of them.”
He also said he thought it was “a bit ironic” that the activists who seek to address over-incarceration in the country are advocating to put someone in prison.
“This person was on the hunt for activists and the judge just sends him back to his basement to make more bombs. This is totally unacceptable,” Gray said.
Lohmar confirmed that he and the court have no present concerns about anyone’s safety with Swoboda free in the community.
“He’s been in active psychiatric treatment since he was arrested on these charges and by all accounts he’s been medicated, and so at present no, we don’t have any concerns that anybody’s safety is at risk,” Lohmar said.
Missouri NAACP President Nimrod Chapel Jr. is a trial attorney with more than a decade of practice covering a wide range of legal issues.
He asked how Black defendants in St. Louis County can get lengthy prison time for setting a trash can on fire, but this white defendant in St. Charles gets a suspended sentence and is released from police custody.
Lohmar said he did not know what cases Chapel was referencing but again denied that race has anything to do with the outcome of this or any other cases.
The NAACP issued a travel advisory in 2017 warning Black people against traveling to Missouri, pointing to racist incidents, a state law making it harder to sue for discrimination and the fact that Black motorists have a much greater chance of being pulled over.
That advisory remains in effect.
“During the previous legislative session, St. Charles legislators sought to enact legislation that would remove liability for drivers who run over protesters, and make it a felony for protesters to block streets, so this just seems to be business as usual for St. Charles,” Gray wrote. “It just seems that the penalty for freedom of speech escalates from jail, to injury, or possible death in St. Charles.”
The reverend later announced that he, other activists and Lohmar planned to meet the morning of Wednesday, June 2.
In a Facebook post after the media conference last week, Gray summed up his frustration.
“When you put a would be white supremacist assassin back on the street, what message are you giving to other violent white supremacists. That’s simple: That it’s business as usual.”
Allesi declined to comment on the matter, saying the rules of judicial conduct prevent her from publicly discussing cases.
