Jury Verdict Could Bankrupt Aryans

COEUR d'ALENE, Idaho —  In a verdict likely to bankrupt one of the nation’s most violent white supremacist organizations, an Idaho jury Thursday returned a $6.3-million civil judgment against the Aryan Nations and its founder, Richard Butler--the rural Idaho pastor who has been called “the elder statesman of American hate.”

“We cleaned his clock,” said Alabama civil rights lawyer Morris Dees, who brought the case on behalf of a Native American woman and her son who were assaulted by Aryan Nations security guards in 1998. Two men were sentenced to prison in the attack.

Dees vowed to seize the group’s 20-acre Hayden Lake compound and “every desk, typewriter and computer” in it.

“For too long, the Aryan Nations compound in this county has been a haven for violent racists, and I hope this jury’s verdict will put an end to that,” Dees said. Victoria Keenan and her son, Jason, “brought this case for the many, many people in this nation who’ve suffered from the violent racists under the tutelage of Richard Butler.” The Keenans burst into tears and embraced after the jury’s verdict was read.

The 82-year-old Butler, looking frail and tired outside the courthouse, said he was perplexed that such a verdict could be handed down in a community “filled with the people who have escaped multiculturalism” in urban America.

“You go to Los Angeles, go to San Francisco, go to Chicago and be marginalized there,” he declared. “We’re still in business.”

His lawyer, Edgar Steele, also appeared stunned by the verdict--believed to be the largest punitive damage award in Idaho history. “I’ve considered this area to be one of the last bastions of free speech in America. Man, you can put an epitaph to that. Free speech was put to rest today in a rural courtroom in the back country of Idaho.”

But Gov. Dirk Kempthorne countered that “this verdict, by a jury of peers, represents a clear victory for the values of Idaho. We are law-abiding citizens who do not condone the violence and antics of a small group of hate-mongers. . . . If they are looking for new placards to display at their compound, may I suggest a sign that simply reads: For Sale.”

Steele said he likely would move for a new trial on the basis of the massive publicity associated with the case.

The jury deliberated about a day and a half before returning the verdict--$5.1 million of which was assessed against Butler and the Aryan Nations. The remainder is to be paid by Butler’s former chief of staff, Michael Teague, and the two security guards who pleaded guilty in the criminal assault--Jesse Warfield and John Yeager.

Thursday’s award was $330,000 in actual damages and $6 million in punitive damages, permitted after Kootenai County Judge Charles W. Hosack found the Aryan Nations was negligent in the operation of its security force.

The case has been the most closely watched of a series of civil suits against hate organizations, with others pending against such groups as the Hammerskin Nation in California and the World Church of the Creator in Illinois.

Dees and the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center have successfully targeted racist groups in the past, including a $12.5-million judgment won against Tom Metzger and the White Aryan Resistance.

Dees suggested the sprawling rural compound in Hayden Lake, with its watchtower, guard shack, swastika-draped church and bunkhouses, could be turned into a center for tolerance.

“We intend to enforce this verdict. We intend to take every single asset from the Aryan Nations now and forever. We intend to take even the name Aryan Nations and hopefully . . . close that sad chapter in the history of this nation,” Dees said.

“Certainly, this judgment bankrupts Mr. Butler. But he was bankrupted before it started, because his ideas were corrupt and evil,” Dees added. “Butler has a right to hate, but he does not have a right to hurt people and to teach other people to hurt.”

Human rights organizations for years have sought to target Aryan Nations, which promotes through a publishing network and prison outreach program the supremacy of the white race and the notion of a separate white homeland in the Pacific Northwest. Its annual summer congresses are one of the most visible meeting grounds for white supremacists, drawing speakers and activists from across the country.

The July 1998 attack against the Keenans provided the vehicle for the civil lawsuit. Keenan and her teenage son were driving past the compound one evening when their car backfired, a sound that Aryan security guards apparently mistook for a gunshot. A truckload of guards--led by Warfield and Yeager--gave chase, firing shots until the Keenans’ car went into a ditch. Warfield, then chief of security, pulled Keenan by the hair and threatened to kill her; other guards beat her son.

Butler has insisted the guards were drunk and out of control when they sped after the Keenans without his authorization. In testimony during the eight-day trial, he denied the organization even had a security force.

Of the men who wear Aryan Nations uniforms and carry firearms during the group’s annual congresses, he said: “In truth, probably you can equate it to children playing. . . . Everybody likes a title, to be something in the world.”

But the plaintiffs brought in a parade of damaging witnesses. They included two former Aryan Nations guards who testified that Butler and his lieutenants failed to train the security staff, appointed people without conducting background checks and attempted to cover up their lack of security procedures after the lawsuit was filed.

Butler’s lawyer Steele admitted the conduct of the guards was “reprehensible.” “The Keenans were hurt. They deserve to be compensated. Certainly the guys that did it” should pay, he said. “But I never did believe that my clients [Butler, the Aryan Nations and Teague] were directly responsible.”

Steele said it was not clear whether Butler would be allowed to keep his residence on the compound. He said the $50,000 lien he already holds over the property for legal fees would take precedence over whatever the Southern Poverty Law Center is able to collect.

Teague, who was found to be liable for $600,000 in damages, said the verdict would have no impact on other Aryan Nations chapters nationwide--including one in California headed by Neuman Britton. His six-acre property near Escondido could theoretically serve as a new home base for the group.

“We have a message, and our message will continue,” Teague said. “They think there’s some magic little pill they can swallow that will make Aryan Nations go away. We are not going away. . . . We are all Aryan Nations.”