Dylann Roof's friend gets over 2 years for hindering FBI
Source: ABC
During a night of vodka, cocaine, marijuana and video games, Joey Meek listened as a childhood buddy confided that he hated blacks so much he was going to kill them at a Charleston church.
Meek said he thought his friend was all talk until a week later, when news broke of a deadly shooting rampage at Emanuel AME church. But instead of calling authorities, Meek talked another friend out of going to police and giving them Dylann Roof's name. And then he lied to the FBI about his conversation with Roof.
The punishment was handed down by the federal judge who presided at Roof's trial, which ended in January with the avowed white supremacist sentenced to death for massacring nine black people as they bowed their heads in prayer during a Wednesday night Bible study session on June 17, 2015.
Meek was not charged for failing to tell police about the impending attack, since that is not a crime under federal law. Instead, he was prosecuted for stopping a friend immediately after the slaughter from calling the police to report Roof as a suspect.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/dylann-roofs-friend-prison-lying-fbi-46270539
The judge said Meek's actions delayed Roof's capture for hours, during which Roof easily could have massacred more people somewhere else.
If Meek "had just gone in his bedroom and cried and regretted not reporting, he would have committed no federal crime," Gergel said.
Meek told the FBI that he didn't report the conversation or call police even after hearing about the shootings in Charleston because he was on probation for burglary and was worried he would get in more trouble.
He also said he was so scared after hearing about the massacre that he wondered if he needed to get a gun to protect himself from Roof
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