FORMER JDL ACTIVIST KRUGEL KILLED IN PRISON.Byline: Staff and Wire Services LOS ANGELES Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. - A Jewish Defense League The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a militant Jewish organization whose stated goal is to protect Jews from anti-Semitism.[1] Founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City in 1968, its self-described purpose was to protect Hasidic Jews from harassment in Brooklyn, and to activist imprisoned im·pris·on tr.v. im·pris·oned, im·pris·on·ing, im·pris·ons To put in or as if in prison; confine. [Middle English emprisonen, from Old French emprisoner : en- for his role in an alleged plot to bomb a California mosque and the office of a Lebanese-American congressman was killed at a federal prison in Phoenix. Earl Krugel, 62, of Reseda, who was sentenced in September to 20 years in prison in a plea bargain plea bargain n. in criminal procedure, a negotiation between the defendant and his attorney on one side and the prosecutor on the other, in which the defendant agrees to plead "guilty" or "no contest" to some crimes, in return for reduction of the severity of the , was killed Friday in what his wife said she was told was an assault by another inmate, who hit him from behind with a concrete block. ``Earl never saw it happening,'' Lola Krugel said. ``He was exercising.'' Krugel's sister, Linda Krugel said her brother had been at the medium- security prison for three days. ``He was killed in cold blood ... this is disgusting,'' she said late Saturday. Federal authorities have opened a homicide investigation, said Richard Murray, an FBI special agent in Phoenix. He declined to make public any other details. Krugel, a former dental assistant dental assistant n. A person trained to assist a dentist with clinical and administrative procedures. from Reseda, and late JDL n. 1. Jewish Defense League. leader Irv Rubin were arrested in 2001 and charged with conspiring to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City and a field office of Rep. Darrell E. Issa, R-Vista, who is Lebanese-American. Rubin died in 2002 at age 57 from injuries sustained in what authorities said was a jailhouse suicide attempt. Authorities said he slashed his throat with a razor and fell about 15 feet off a balcony while in jail awaiting trial. Krugel pleaded guilty in 2003 to one count of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of worshippers at the mosque and one count of carrying an explosive device in connection with a conspiracy to impede or injure an office of the United States. Despite the plea - which at one point prosecutors had vacated - and statements by Krugel that he was a changed man, U.S. District Court Judge Ronald S.W. Lew Ronald S.W. Lew (Chinese name: 刘成威; born 1941) is a U.S. District Court Judge for the Central District of California in the Ninth Circuit. Outside of Hawaii, Judge Lew was the first Chinese-American appointed to the federal bench after being appointed by sentenced him in September to a 20-year prison sentence, the maximum allowed under the guilty plea. The reasons for the collapse of the initial plea agreement were sealed, despite a lawsuit by news organizations, including The Associated Press, to make the details public. During the case, Krugel's lawyers noted that prosecutors were angered that his client withheld for several months the names of four people allegedly connected to the 1985 murder case of Alex Odeh, the western regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Several former JDL members were suspected in the case, but no one was ever charged. On Saturday, Krugel's wife maintained her husband's imprisonment Imprisonment See also Isolation. Alcatraz Island former federal maximum security penitentiary, near San Francisco; “escapeproof.” [Am. Hist.: Flexner, 218] Altmark, the German prison ship in World War II. [Br. Hist. was tied to Odeh. ``Earl did not deserve what he got. It was all political,'' she said. ``It was all about Alex Odeh and my husband did not know anything about Alex Odeh. I'm devastated dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. and I'm shocked that the system allowed this to happen.'' Krugel's wife said she last spoke with her husband on Thursday and he was still adjusting to prison life. ``He was supposed to call me on Friday morning,'' she said. When I didn't hear from him, I felt something was not right.'' |
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