Mosque Plot Suspect Requests New Counsel

The trial for 63-year-old former Imperial Beach resident Roger Stockham, who allegedly plotted to attack the , has been stalled while Stockham is appointed new counsel.

Stockham appeared in a Dearborn, MI, court for the first time Friday morning and was originally being represented by attorney Mark Haidar but requested a change of counsel because he believes Haidar to be a Shiite Muslim.

“I reject my appointed counsel. He is a Shiite," Stockham said to presiding Judge Mark Somers. "I am not being represented by a patron of the mosque I am ... accused [of planning to attack].”

Haidar could not be reached to confirm if he in fact attends worship services at the Islamic Center of America.

Matthew Evans has now been appointed to represent Stockham. 

In regard to Stockham's request to switch lawyers, Evans confirmed that Stockham is a Muslim convert. “That’s what he told me,” Evans said, adding that he did not ask Stockham whether he is a practicing Muslim, and could not confirm if Stockham considers himself to be a Shiite Muslim.

Police arrested Stockham outside the mosque Jan. 24. They say he was wearing a black ski mask and driving near the mosque in a van full of intoxicants, spray paint and several "Class C" fireworks.

At Friday's pre-trial hearing, attorney Jeffrey Schwartz stood in for Haidar, who was out of town on plans set in place before he was assigned Stockham's case. Schwartz requested that Stockham receive a psychiatric evaluation, due to his history of mental health problems.

“Based on Mr. Stockham’s past mental health history and Mr. Haidar’s interview with Mr. Stockham, he [Haidar] has instructed me to request that this court have him referred for a competency exam,” Schwartz said in court.

Judge Mark Somers, however, said that the issue of changing Stockham's legal counsel needed to be addressed first.

"Let's make sure we get off on the right foot," Somers said. "We can see about a spot appointment, and then pick up the remaining issues."

Stockham said he did not tell Haidar about his request to change counsel, though he did speak with him briefly while in jail. “He seemed to be in quite a hurry, and it didn’t seem to be appropriate at the time,” said Stockham of broaching the issue of his lawyer's religion.

It is expected that the next step will include the mental competency exam, based on Stockham's history of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder stemming from his time served in Vietnam, as well as a series of past charges against him since the 1970s, involving kidnapping his son, threats against several U.S. presidents, and .

Evans would not confirm whether that was the route he was taking with the trial now that he is Stockham's attorney. "I plan to go through with the preliminary exam," he said Friday afternoon.

According to reports by various media outlets, while out on bail for kidnapping his son in 1979, Stockham blew up oil tanks at a Union Oil Co. facility in Lompoc, CA. He was found innocent by reason of insanity and spent some time in a mental hospital.

His most recent charges come from Jan. 24, when he was arrested in the parking lot of the Islamic Center in Dearborn for allegedly plotting to attack the building, the largest mosque in the metro Detroit area. 

Stockham faces charges of possessing illegal "Class C" explosives, including M-80s, as well as making a terrorist threat. He is also being charged for having open intoxicants in his car at the time of the arrest.

His next hearing will be 9 a.m. Feb. 11 before Judge Somers.

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