Federal judge says Brecksville bridge bomb suspects to remain behind bars, for now

CLEVELAND - The five men accused of trying to blow up the Brecksville bridge will remain behind bars.

A federal judge decided the men will remain in custody, for now, as the judge needs more time to make a ruling on bond.

During the hearing, some surveillance video was shown and more details about the bomb plot came out.

Federal prosecutors said one of the suspects was even secretly recorded saying, "We just committed the biggest act of terrorism in Cleveland since the 1960s."

Federal prosecutors also showed Judge David Dowd night vision surveillance video that allegedly showed four of the five suspects placing what they thought were real bombs at the base of the Rt. 82 bridge that links Brecksville and Sagamore Hills.

One defense attorney said that was only a snippet of the whole story.

"There are hours and hours of tape and what was presented in court by the government today was what they wanted the judge to hear and we're going to make it our business to try to get some more information," said Tony Vegh, attorney for suspect Douglas Wright.

Prosecutors said the men went to an Applebee's 25 miles north of the bridge and tried to enter cellphone codes multiple times to blow up the bridge. But the bombs were fakes and the five men were arrested outside of the restaurant.

Prosecutor Duncan Brown told the judge on Wednesday that  the suspects "knew what they were doing, wanted to do it and they thought they had done it."

Defense attorneys argued that Wright, Brandon Baxter, Anthony Hayne, Connor Stevens and Joshua Stafford were encouraged, even entrapped, by an informant that secretly recorded 40-50 hours of conversations leading up to the attempted bridge bombing.

"The evidence of entrapment really is evidence of lack of dangerousness. But for the government provocateur, in our view, they're not dangerous at all."

"Without the government provocateur, these guys could barely blow their nose, let alone blow up a bridge," said John Pyle, attorney for Baxter.

Prosecutors argued the suspects could be flight risks and should stay locked up until their September trial.

Lawyers for the suspects want them out on bond -- a decision that the judge still has to make.

"They will stay in jail until there is a ruling by the judge. The post hearing briefs are due June 8 and then the judge will rule at some point after that," explains Stevens' lawyer Jennifer Schwartz.

Judge Dowd said the suspects are entitled to view the surveillance recordings, which capture video and audio. The judge asked the prosecution to prepare entire transcripts of the tapes by June 15.

But June 8 is the day to watch as it's the day when the judge wants all final briefs filed on the issue of bond.