Dr. Chaos conviction overthrown by federal appeals court
A federal appeals court threw out the arson conviction of a man who calls himself "Dr. Chaos," saying Tuesday a federal judge should have let him withdraw his guilty plea before he was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Joseph Konopka pleaded guilty in 2002 to six federal crimes including arson, software piracy, destruction and vandalism in a crime spree that damaged power substations, radio transmitters and utility facilities and caused dozens of power outages in northeastern Wisconsin. But Konopka, 28, tried to back out of the plea before his sentencing a year ago, arguing a federal statute that would add 10 years to his sentence for using fire while committing the crimes shouldn't apply when the crime is arson.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman of Milwaukee refused him, but a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago agreed it didn't make sense to add extra time for a crime committed while using fire or explosives in Konopka's conviction for setting a sauerkraut factory ablaze.
