May 28--A Naperville man faces at least a decade behind bars and potentially millions of dollars in restitution after pleading guilty Thursday to charges he set a fire at a Chicago-area radar facility that wreaked havoc on the nation's air traffic system last September.
Brian Howard, who had worked as a telecommunications contractor for the Federal Aviation Adminstration, pleaded guilty to willfully damaging an air navigation facility and using fire to commit a federal felony. The latter charge carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison, and prosecutors said federal sentencing guidelines could call for up to 19 years behind bars.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Polovin said investigators were still calculating the restitution amount, but with such a large number of victims, the figure is estimated to be $100 million or more. But Howard's lawyer says he doesn't have the money to pay much of anything.
Speaking in a clear voice and appearing much more lucid than he did after his arrest eight months ago, Howard answered "yes" several times as U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman asked him if he understood the terms of his guilty plea.
As Howard was led out of the courtroom by deputy U.S. marshals after the hearing, he smiled at the more than two dozen family members and supporters seated in the gallery.
"Thank you all very much for coming," Howard said as several relatives called out, "We love you!"
His sentencing hearing was set for Sept. 11. He remains in custody.
Howard was accused of setting a fire during a failed suicide attempt at the Aurora radar facility. The act shut down a key cog in the nation's air traffic system, disrupting flights and leading to thousands of flight cancellations and delays over the following days. The radar center reopened 17 days later.
According to an FBI affidavit, Howard arrived at the Aurora radar center about 5 a.m. Sept. 26. About 30 minutes later, he posted a Facebook message in which he said he planned to kill himself and threatened to take down ZAU, a reference to the control center's three-letter call signal.
"Take a hard look in the mirror, I have," Howard allegedly wrote in the post. "And this is why I am about to take out ZAU and my life. April, Pop, love you guys and I'm sorry. Leaving you with a big mess. Do your best to quickly move on from me please. Feel like I give a (expletive) for the first time in a long time again ... but not for too long (haha!) So I'm gonna smoke this blunt and move on, take care everyone."
In his 18-page plea agreement with prosecutors, Howard admitted using wire cutters to sever crucial communications cables that he knew would leave air traffic controllers unable to communicate with jets traveling through airspace across the Midwest. He also used a towel and gasoline to set fire to the communications equipement.
Howard's attorney, Ronald Safer, has maintained that Howard, a Navy veteran with no criminal record, was mentally ill and that the goal of pleading guilty was to ensure he could get treatment in the federal prison system. After the hearing Thursday, Safer said Howard never intended to harm anyone and believed that a backup system at the facility would kick in within seconds of him cutting the cables.
"Brian has accepted responsibility for what he did from the first day he was able to speak after trying to take his own life," Safer said in the lobby of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. "There is no explanation that makes sense. ... It was an accumulation of things, and he snapped."
As far as the millions of dollars in potential fines and restitution, Safer called it "angels dancing on the head of a pin."
"He doesn't have the resources, and you can't pay what you don't have," Safer said.
jmeisner@tribpub.com
Twitter jmetr22b
