McGee said that the charges could come as early as Feb. 26 when Criminal Court Judge Rebecca J. Stern sentences the three Black anti-police brutality activists, who were convicted Jan. 11 of disrupting a meeting of the Chattanooga City Council in 1998. Muhammad was also convicted of resisting arrest. He could receive up to 18 months in jail, and Ervin and McGee could receive up to six months. McGee accused the provocateur of being part of a conspiracy by Hamilton County Sheriff John Cupp and District Attorney Bill Cox to frame the Chattanooga 3 on felony charges of terrorism. Sheriff's deputies handle security in the Criminal Court Building where Ervin, McGee and Muhammad were tried.
Disruption is a misdemeanor offense.
Ervin, McGee or Muhammad could be secretly indicted by a grand jury for conspiring to bring the gun and bullets into the courtroom. McGee said that the provocateur joined a sidewalk picket line that McGee, Ervin, Muhammad and their supporters conducted during the trial's lunchtime recess on Jan. 10. According to McGee, he nor Ervin had ever seen the man prior to the picket line. McGee said that the man hugged Muhammad, who said that he had seen the man in his neighborhood but does not know his name. After that, sheriff's deputies ordered everyone to leave the courtroom.