Project 7 figure guilty of weapons charge

MISSOULA - A federal jury on Wednesday quickly found Larry Chezem guilty of conspiring to possess illegal weapons.

Jurors agreed with Assistant U.S. Attorney Kris McLean that Chezem committed the crime. McLean prosecuted Chezem and other members of a Flathead Valley group called Project 7 connected with federal weapons crimes.

"The machine guns are laying here in the courtroom. That's pretty solid evidence," McLean told the jury during closing arguments.

Jurors got an education in illegal machine guns, particularly STEN and FN/FALs, and the paramilitary group that trained with them in the woods around Kalispell, supposedly in preparation for natural disaster or national attack.

Five other members of the group previously pleaded guilty to weapons charges. Chezem, 54, had pleaded innocent and acted as his own attorney during the 2 1/2-day trial.

Among the witnesses called by the government were Tracy Brockway, Jon Erdmann, and Steve Morey, who all said they were

members of the group. Brockway was the first person to publicly speak the name of Project 7, which she described as a group of survivalists. The group reportedly took its name from the numeral that appears in Flathead County license plates.

Brockway originally revealed information about the group at a bond hearing after she was arrested on charges of harboring group leader Dave Burgert. He faked his disappearance from law enforcement and was arrested after an armed standoff with authorities in February 2002.

After Burgert's arrest, officials said the group planned to kill judges and law-enforcement officers. Brockway reportedly gathered personal information on officers and their families when she worked at the Whitefish Police Department. No one has ever been charged in connection with those allegations.

Chezem has said that the term Project 7 was just a name used by the media. He admitted associating with the group, but denied it was called Project 7, and said he had no criminal intent. He referred to himself as "the accused" during his closing statement.

"The accused didn't belong to a group called Project 7. The group was simply a group of people," he said.

"What has happened to our rights to freely associate and freely speak?" he asked the jury. "Since when is it against the law to go with friends and shoot at targets and have a picnic meal?"

He said he angered "officialdom" by statements he made when he ran unsuccessfully for Flathead County sheriff in 2002. The members of his group were "afraid of me" because he refused to give them information he had about where a deputy sheriff lives, he said.

There was no proof he ever bought or helped to buy machine guns, he said.

McLean said there was plenty of proof that Chezem was part of the conspiracy to possess the illegal weapons.

Chezem attended and hosted meetings of the group, McLean said. He was range master during training at which the members fired machine guns. And when members began moving the weapons from home to home, eventually burying them near a Forest Service road on Crane Mountain, Chezem wanted access to the guns and wanted to know everything about them, McLean said.

One of the members, Jon Erdmann, became a government informant, leading the FBI to the buried cache of weapons and secretly recording phone calls and conversations with Chezem.

When Project 7 member Steve Morey returned to the burial site with Erdmann, they found the weapons had been seized by federal authorities. FBI agent Steve Liss left a business card and a note that said, "We have your goodies and we have you. We suggest you call the FBI."

The first person Morey called after discovering the message from the FBI was Chezem.

In discussions with Morey and with Erdmann about the guns, Chezem communicated by writing notes, which he burned, according to the men's testimony.

"That's the kind of thing persons do when they know they're committing a crime and don't want to get caught," McLean said.

The jury heard a lengthy recorded conversation between Erdmann and Chezem in which Chezem talked about how to avoid being followed or placed under surveillance and said he was "trying to figure out their [the government's] capability," McLean said. Chezem spoke softly during the taped conversation because "he knows he's making criminal statements" related to the guns, McLean said.

Chezem talked about "compartmentalizing" as a tactic to keep things secret.

"It keeps you from putting two and two together when you're on the inside," he told Erdmann. Chezem was on the inside and "right in the middle of Project 7," McLean concluded.

It took the jury little more than an hour to agree. They received the case at about 11:30 a.m. and had a verdict at about 1 p.m. They had lunch before revealing their verdict.

Chezem faces up to five years in prison. He was released until U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy sentences him in September.

McLean, who also prosecuted the five other members of Project 7, said Wednesday, "It's good to get this case wrapped up finally."

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com