Jason Paul Schaefer, 27, who was arrested Oct. 10, 2017, claims his home drug lab was to find a cure for opioid addiction, his defense lawyer said in court Tuesday.
An Oregon man who is accused of igniting explosives in a cigarette pack last year is challenging a warrant that officers used to search his home, saying his home drug lab was being used to find a cure for opioid addiction, a report said Tuesday.
Jason Paul Schaefer, 27, whom authorities described as a convicted felon, was arrested Oct. 10, 2017, by two members of the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Oregonian reported. During the arrest, Schaefer allegedly lit the cigarette pack, which exploded -- blowing two fingers off his left hand and temporarily deafening one of the officers.
Now Schaefer's lawyers are arguing that the affidavit written by FBI agent and bomb technician Wade Mutchler supporting the October warrant "selectively omitted key information," the paper reported.
“The information was incomplete to the point of being misleading,’’ defense attorney Lisa Ludwig said in court Tuesday.
Ludwig said the warrant didn't mention the innocuous uses of the chemicals that Schaefer bought and noted only that they "could be combined or easily modified to manufacture improvised explosives."
Schaefer said he tried to make a drug that could treat opioid addiction, the paper reported, citing Ludwig and court records.
Ludwig said the warrant affidavit also failed to include another FBI agent's April 2017 search of his Rock Creek home that concluded the chemicals "appear to be sole for illicit drugs," and there was "no identified threat to national security."
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Tolkoff called the defense's claim "absurd" and "internally inconsistent," the report said.
"How, one might ask, could someone with no chemistry training discover a cure for opioid addiction from chemicals purchased online?” he said.
Even if the suspect's sole intent was to buy the chemicals for a drug lab, "of course that's a crime too," Tolkoff said.
According to the Oregonian, Schaefer faces two counts of assault on a federal officer, carrying and using a destructive device during a crime of violence, using an explosive to commit a federal felony, carrying an explosive during the commission of a federal felony and felon in possession of explosives.
Rock Creek is about 12 miles west of Portland.
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