SAN JOSE — A drone pilot who dumped leaflets over two football games at Levi’s Stadium and the Oakland Coliseum warning that “prostitutes and felons” had infiltrated the media and local government was sentenced to two years of federal probation, court records show.
Tracy Mapes, 54, pleaded guilty in January to two misdemeanor counts of violating national defense airspace, and faced up to six months in jail. At a June sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Susan van Keulen agreed with a prosecution request to give him a two-year probation term, court records show.
Mapes has also been tied to a similar leaflet dump in Sacramento, in which flyers containing a swastika were dumped on the Sacramento State University campus and the Golden 1 Center, the Sacramento Bee reported. In May 2019, federal prosecutors in the Bay Area charged him with dumping profane leaflets over the area’s two NFL stadiums on Nov. 26, 2017.
The criminal complaint also said he authored an online article entitled “Direct Action — Modern Warfare — Tactics and Results” that included a “direct action list” with items like “nail drop,” “arson/property destruction,” and “homicide.” The leaflets encouraged people to “stop the TV (expletive) takeover” and warned “prostitutes and felons” had been “placed” throughout mainstream society, including the U.S. Supreme Court and Senate.
Mapes’ attorney wrote in a sentencing memo that his goal was “imploring the public to contact their elected officials,” and pointed out no one was injured in either leaflet drop.
In a pre-sentence interview with U.S. Probation, Mapes said he would continued in his goal of “outing illegal and unconstitutional government activities,” according to a sentencing memo by federal prosecutors.
“Regarding the question about what the probation office can do to help him succeed, the defendant reported, ‘Don’t bother me, I’m doing fine,’” the probation report says.
Source: www.mercurynews.com