Defense attorney: Bridge bomb plot suspect Brandon Baxter was 'coached' and 'entrapped'

CLEVELAND - The attorney defending one of the five bridge bomb plot suspects said his client was "coached" into taking part in the alleged plan to blow up a high level bridge along Route 82 in Cuyahoga County.

"It's shaping up like a genuine entrapment case," said Cleveland attorney John Pyle, who called the government's actions in the bomb plot case troubling.

Pyle's client, Brandon Baxter of Lakewood, is one of five men charged in federal court with conspiracy to blow up a bridge using explosives.

The FBI made the arrest with information supplied by a paid informant with a lengthy criminal history and two open cases.

Pyle said the the government supplied Baxter -- who is 20 years old -- with alcohol and coached Baxter throughout the plot process.

"We're going to put the government's conduct under a microscope and a jury will tell us whether they went over the line or not," Pyle said.

Pyle said in February his client tried to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge over the Rocky River and it was around that time the FBI informant had been talking with Baxter.

"We're seeing the extent to which the FBI orchestrated what happened here and encouraged these men," Pyle said Thursday to NewsChannel5's Bob Seeley.

Pyle said his client did not have the means, money or know-how until the FBI supplied the money, plan and fake devices.

Pyle said it was not the FBI that pressed the buttons on the remote devices, but that the group was coached throughout the process from October until Monday night when the group was arrested trying to detonate what the FBI said the defendants thought were explosives that would take down the bridge.