Loren Reed is Freed from Federal Custody
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 20, 2021
Contact:
Chava Shapiro, Tucson Anti-Repression Crew
(415) 857-0507 or Chava_tarc@protonmail.com
PHOENIX, Arizona—Today we celebrate that Loren Reed will soon be free after spending over a year in pretrial detention without bail, followed by a nearly two month re-arrest and incarceration. Reed, a 27-year-old Diné (Navajo) activist, had a sentencing hearing yesterday in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona after accepting a non-cooperating plea deal in May. The judge accepted Loren’s plea and he will be released from federal custody and into a transitional facility soon.
Reed’s initial federal felony charge was pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Sec. 844(e), “Use of Instrument of Interstate Commerce (Telephone and Internet) to Threaten to Destroy a Building by Means of Fire,” after he engaged in a heated debate over Black Lives Matter protest tactics in a private Facebook chat group created to organize a local police brutality protest.
In May, Reed pleaded guilty to the underlying threat charge in exchange for a deferred sentence. In Reed’s case, a deferred sentence means that if he abides by all the requirements of his deal for two years, this felony charge will be dismissed and he will not suffer a felony conviction on his record. Reed also pleaded guilty to simple possession of marijuana, a Class A misdemeanor, in exchange for the future dismissal of the felony.
“Loren’s case is truly infuriating because there are such limited avenues for recourse when the government acts as it has here. They finally realized that they didn’t actually have a case against him, but that’s after he’s spent a year of his life languishing in jail, fighting this charge," said Sarah Alvarez, a staff attorney with the Civil Liberties Defense Center. "Further, the fact that the government agreed to a plea with no additional jail time demonstrates how hollow their claims of Reed’s supposed ‘dangerousness’ really were — all they wanted was the politicized conviction of Reed, and that is clear as day."
"The FBI and the US Attorney thought that railroading Loren with a felony charge and prison time would be easy because they do it all the time," said Ryan Fatica, a member of the Tucson Anti-Repression Crew. "His case is part of a broader strategy the FBI and other law enforcement agencies are enacting across the country right now to incarcerate as many people as possible who participated in last year's protests and uprisings. What they didn't count on was Loren's courage and our solidarity. Loren was willing to face prison time rather than plead guilty and while he sat in pretrial detention, people across the country and around the world expressed their solidarity with his resistance."
Following his acceptance of the plea in May, Reed was released but was arrested several weeks later, receiving an unrelated disorderly conduct charge. He was returned to Federal custody pending his sentencing hearing.
As a condition of his release from the CoreCivic Central Arizona Detention Center where he has been incarcerated for nearly 13 months, Reed will be transferred to a transitional facility.
Reed would like to express his sincere gratitude to those who have supported him during his incarceration.
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Tucson Anti-Repression Crew works to contribute to cultures of resilience against state repression in so-called Southern Arizona.