Former Sacramento prison counselor charged with lying to FBI about Syria travels
A youth prison counselor who lived in Sacramento and was extradited from the United Kingdom was arraigned Monday for allegedly lying to FBI agents about his travel to Syria in an international terrorism investigation, the Department of Justice announced.
The man — Brian Arthur Dempsey, 48 — was returned to California on Friday after a protracted 3½-year legal battle and more than four years after he was indicted by a federal grand jury, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.
In court Monday, Dempsey pleaded not guilty. He is the one of the oldest Americans suspecting of turning to jihad in more than a decade, according to a George Washington University study on Americans becoming jihadi.
According to prosecutors, Dempsey was detained in 2013 in Rome’s Fiumicino Airport returning from Syria after being flagged on a no-fly list. The FBI agent questioned Dempsey, who converted from Catholicism to Islam sometime between 2011 and 2013, about his travels.
After fleeing Italy in 2014, Dempsey remained off the radar until his arrest in January 2017 by British authorities. Dempsey had been in custody in the United Kingdom since.
Dempsey allegedly told the agent that he and another individual referred to as “Person A” went to Syria for the purpose of “helping refugees.” Dempsey told the federal agent at the time he had no intention of fighting in Syria, according to the indictment.
While in Syria, Dempsey lived in the small town of A’zaz, near the Turkish border. There, he and Person A are alleged to have become involved in Ahrar al-Sham, a group fighting in opposition to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In the Rome airport, the court documents said, Dempsey told the FBI agent that no one in A’zaz was involved in fighting the regime, which was waging war against rebels and the Islamic State group.
Several months later, Dempsey was interviewed again in Italy, where he reportedly admitted to lying about his militant activity. Dempsey also told the FBI agent he had instructed his brother not to tell government officials about his plan to go to Syria, contradicting a previous statement that he had asked his brother to check with federal authorities whether doing so was legal, according to federal court documents.
He and an attorney discussed a possible plea deal with the U.S. government for nine months until he reportedly cut off communication and fled Italy in October 2014.
A grand jury in Sacramento indicted Dempsey in 2016 for knowingly making false statements to an FBI agent in Rome.
The indictment alleges that while in A’zaz, Dempsey came into contact with members of IS and al-Nusra Front, both designated by the U.S. as terrorist organizations, though he denied to the FBI agent that he’d met anyone in A’zaz who was involved in terrorism.
The protracted fight to bring Dempsey back to the U.S. came after a British magistrate tossed the American request on the basis that the charges “did not amount to an extraditable offense.” Justice Department officials appealed to the High Court of Justice in London, which overturned the decision, sending to back to an extradition judge.
For 11 years, starting in 2001, Dempsey supervised juvenile wards and oversaw youth rehabilitation programs for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He resigned from the job in April 2012, said Bill Sessa, a CDCR spokesman, told The Bee in 2018. In July 2013, Dempsey traveled to Syria.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Dempsey, if convicted, faces a maximum of eight years in prison.
This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 6:53 PM.