By Henry Pierson Curtis, Orlando Sentinel –
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — All charges have been dropped against a married couple from Brevard County, Fla., in the American Front domestic terrorism case, court records show.
Mark and Jennifer McGowan face no criminal charges after being held for months in jail on $500,000 bail each, records show.
No reason was given when the Orange-Osceola state attorney filed a motion without any notice on Friday that charges against the McGowans be dismissed.
The American Front members were rounded up beginning in May by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Osceola County sheriff on charges of conducting paramilitary training for what the white supremacist group considered an inevitable race war.
Fourteen members were arrested in Florida and California as part of an investigation into the group’s activities in Holopaw in eastern Osceola County. Some of the undercover work was done by a paid informant who secretly filmed weapons training and provided almost daily updates on the group, records show.
Court records do not indicate if the McGowans agreed with prosecutors to testify at a series of trials expected to begin next month. The state attorney’s office declined comment.
Mark McGowan signed state corporate records creating the American Front and was identified as its financial director.
As recently as Oct. 2, the McGowans were named in an updated set of criminal charges accusing them of committing more than 12 hate-related crimes and conspiracies, including “the furtherance of a civil disorder within the United States.”
Two other American Front members have pleaded guilty. One was sentenced to three years in prison. The other was put on probation.
