Teen Demonstrator Denied Bail


By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK -- A judge ordered a demonstrator arrested during the World Economic Forum be returned to Los Angeles without bail because of fears he would try to disrupt the Olympics if he were freed.

The teen-age demonstrator threatened on an Internet site to "burn the Olympics" and attack "the corporate playground," a prosecutor said during a bail hearing Thursday. The Olympics begin Friday in Salt Lake City.

Sherman Austin, 18, of Sherman Oaks, Calif., was arrested during a demonstration Saturday on city charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly.

On Monday, a criminal complaint filed against Austin in federal court in Los Angeles charged him with distributing information about weapons of mass destruction by posting information on his Web site relating to the making and using of explosives and other destructive devices.

In denying bail, U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry B. Pitman cited the Internet statements as showing Austin was unlikely to obey orders to return home on his own.

Austin's lawyer, Susan V. Tipograph, predicted the case would evaporate amid First Amendment issues because her client never did anything violent or posed a real threat.