State Seeks Aryan Bail Boost Prosecutor Will Ask Judge To Rethink Reduction For Warfield

A prosecutor is scheduled today to ask a judge to reconsider his decision to substantially reduce the bond for a former Aryan Nations security chief.

The bond for Edward Jesse Warfield was reduced from $100,000 to $20,000 last week by District Court Judge Craig C. Kosonen.

If Warfield gets out of jail, he poses a flight risk and danger to the public, Kootenai County deputy prosecutor Steven Kinn said Monday.

“We have additional information that he’s a flight risk, and we’ll be presenting that at the hearing,” Kinn said.

Warfield’s court-appointed attorney, Monica Flood of Coeur d’Alene, asked for the bond reduction “in the interest of justice.”

Flood said in court papers that Warfield would be living with relatives in Rathdrum and working until he stands trial.

“I don’t think that the fact that Mr. Warfield is associated with the Aryan Nations should in any way have an effect on his bond,” Flood said in court filings.

Warfield, 43, has been in the Kootenai County Jail under $100,000 bond since November, when he was arrested by a SWAT team in Missouri and extradited to Idaho.

He is charged with being involved in the assault-rifle attack on a 43-year-old woman and her teenage son last summer on a county road near the Aryan Nations compound.

Warfield is charged with two counts of aggravated assault, with a weapons enhancement. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 25 years in prison.

Warfield is scheduled to stand trial April 27.

Magistrate Judge Barry Watson originally set the $100,000 bond after hearing preliminary evidence against Warfield.

“I would agree that these are extremely serious charges,” Watson said after the November hearing.

Warfield also is a defendant in a civil suit filed in late January against the Aryan Nations and its founder, Richard Butler, for damages from the assault.

Victoria Keenan and her son, Jason, were chased in their car for two miles and shot at after briefly stopping on Rimrock Road near the entrance to the Aryan Nations.

Victoria Keenan claims her car was hit by at least five bullets, one of which flattened a rear tire and sent the vehicle into a ditch.

She said that she and her son were then held at gunpoint by a group of men.

At the time, Warfield was security chief for the Aryan Nations - a title he held during the group’s parade on July 18 in downtown Coeur d’Alene.

After the parade, Warfield had a falling out with Butler and his chief-of-staff, Michael Teague.