Biography
Laro Nicol was an ex-marine and long-time social justice activist in Phoenix Arizona who was involved in Phoenix Copwatch, a local anti-police brutality organization. He was also the editor of The Current, a peace and justice newsletter. Police told a confidential informant that they would have drug charges dropped against them if they would befriend Laro and get him to admit to something that they could arrest him on. The informant later told police she spoke to Laro and claimed he admitted to her he was a drug addict and he possessed explosives. The informant provided no evidence this conversation actually took place but police persuaded a judge to issue a search warrant on Laro's home. Federal agents then raided his home and seized his legally owned gun and model rocket collection charging him with possession of material that could be used to build explosives for owning the model rockets and possession of firearms while a narcotics user. No drugs were found in the home and no evidence existed that Nicol used drugs besides the claims of the informant that he privately admitted to being a meth addict. Laro was held without bond and lost his job as an air-traffic controller. The raids coincided with the invasion of Iraq and prosecutors without evidence released statements to the media attempting to link Laro who wasn't a Muslim to the terrorist group Al-Qaeda due to him working at the airport. Laro after being threatened with indefinite confinement under the Patriot Act eventually plead guilty and was sentenced to 2 years in prison. During sentencing the Judge in his case stated that Laro might be the first innocent person he would send to prison and stated that the only victim in this case was him.
Earlier custody report, with endpoints unresolved
The May 2003 People’s Police Report identifies Phoenix Copwatch member Laro Nicol as already taken into federal custody over an alleged improvised grenade, citing the Arizona Republic of March 5. This independently establishes a custody event before the profile’s stored September 2004 sentence-era intake, but the report does not print Nicol’s actual arrest day, physical admission day, discharge, or continuity across that intervening period. March 5 is the cited newspaper date, not an arrest date. The “one day earlier” phrase is relative to an undated Houston towing event and is not converted to March 4. His colleagues’ belief that the arrest was intimidation is attributed to them, not adopted as a judicial finding. Existing dates, plea, release and counters remain unchanged.
Portland Copwatch, People’s Police Report 29, May 2003, original page 7.
