Ogle twins accused in bombing move to prison

PHOENIX -- Two alleged white supremacists accused in a 2004 bombing that injured a black city official in Scottsdale have been moved from a county jail after their lawyers said their rights were violated.

U.S. District Court Judge David Campbell had been scheduled to decide today whether to move twin brothers Dennis and Daniel Mahon from the Maricopa County jail in downtown Phoenix to a federal facility. But the hearing was canceled after the government told the court that the brothers would be removed from the jail.

Lt. Brian Lee, a spokesman for the Maricopa County sheriff's office, said today that the U.S. Marshals Service moved the brothers Tuesday to another facility, either a federal or private prison.

The brothers have pleaded not guilty in a bombing on Feb. 26, 2004, when a package detonated in the hands of Don Logan, Scottsdale's diversity director at the time. The explosion injured his hand and arm, and hurt a secretary.

The brothers, who are from Davis Junction, Ill., are charged with conspiracy to damage buildings and property by means of explosive. Authorities found assault weapons, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and white supremacist material in the home.

It's unclear why the brothers were being held in county jail rather than a federal facility.

Sandy Raynor, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office, said prosecutors wouldn't have a say in where inmates are held and referred questions to the U.S. Marshals Service. Marshals spokesman Matt Hershey declined to say where the brothers were taken or whether the transfer had to do with their allegations of rights violations by the sheriff's office.

"There's no particular reason why they might have been there," he said, adding that it was not uncommon for the Marshals Service to house inmates in a county jail. "We have contracts with all kinds of county jails."

Lee said the sheriff's office sometimes does "courtesy holds" for federal authorities for various reasons, including that the office has a large jail system and is well-equipped to handle high-profile and high-security inmates.

Dennis Mahon's lawyer, Deborah Williams, said in a court filing Dec. 11 that sheriff's deputies repeatedly denied her client access to pertinent documents in his case and violated attorney-client privilege by reading them.

Daniel Mahon's lawyer, Barbara Hull, said in a court filing Dec. 24 that her client was subjected to "torment" and an "intimidation tactic."

She said an unidentified deputy went in Mahon's cell, questioned him about 5,000 pages of documents related to his case that were in his cell and told him he had no right to have them.

Hull said Mahon told the deputy that he had requested boxes for the documents and hoped they didn't pose a problem.

"This officer told Mr. Mahon as he left his cell, 'Boxes are the least of your problems. You're in big trouble,' " Hull wrote. "Mr. Mahon's participation in his defense requires that he have ready access to those documents without further interference, let alone further purposeful intimidation, by sheriff's deputies or staff."

Lee said Dennis Mahon initially was denied access to his documents for security reasons but eventually was allowed to have them. He said Daniel Mahon made no formal complaint about his alleged "torment," so the office would not have investigated it or have a record of it.

He said last week that county inmates often want to be moved to federal facilities because "compared to state prisons, the county jail here in Maricopa County really sucks."

"The food is bad, they get fed twice a day, they don't get to recreate out on the yards, they don't get coffee and porn magazines and stuff like that," he said. "They hate staying in (Sheriff) Joe Arpaio's jail."

(Edit:Ruby)