Judge orders release of two 'Walmart Manifesto' suspects - Fox 10 News

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - A federal judge on Friday denied a request by prosecutors to detain two of the four men arrested on arson conspiracy charges in connection with a string of Walmart fires in the Mobile area and Mississippi.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sonja Bivins wrote in a pair of orders that Michael Bottorff and Quinton Olson are accused of lesser involvement than Sean Bottorff and Alexander Olson, a pair of defendants she ordered detained on Thursday.

All four men plus Jeffery Sikes have been indicted on conspiracy charges.

Testimony on Wednesday accused the defendants of sending a seven-page manifesto to local media. Titled “Declaration of War and Demands for the People,” the document railed against the company’s business practices and threatened more fires if demands were not met. Those included higher pay and more affordable health benefits for Walmart workers.

Bivins noted that Quinton Olson, unlike the two defendants she ordered detained, made no apparent attempt to hide his identity.

While Olson is alleged to have been a part of the conspiracy that involved setting fires inside four Walmart stores, the evidence presented suggests that he is not alleged to have set any of the fires or to have otherwise played a major role in the conspiracy,” she wrote,

Similarly, Bivins wrote, Michael Bottorff stands accused of a less significant role in the conspiracy. The evidence indicates that a vehicle registered to him was present when the fires broke out inside four stores.

“While the case agent testified that the cellphones of some of Bottorff’s coconspirators/housemates connected to cell towers in close vicinity to the stores at the time of the fires, there was no testimony that Bottorff was captured on video, or that his cellphone connected to those cell towers at the time of the fires,” she wrote.

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