 While U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott has called McDavid the first person in the U.S. to be prosecuted on Earth Liberation Front (ELF)-related charges, the trial revealed that McDavid's group had not decided whether or not to claim the planned actions in the name of the ELF.He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.On January 8, 2015 a federal judge ordered McDavid released from custody after the prosecution conceded that it had withheld thousands of pages of evidence.