Jurors Struggled With Verdict

Jurors took tense cigarette breaks, slammed doors and sometimes walked out of the jury room as they argued the fate of North Idaho’s racist Aryan Nations.

Two Kootenai County jurors interviewed late Thursday said there was no easy agreement on whether Butler was liable for the actions of his security guards, or what damages he should pay.

“There were a lot of holes in the evidence on both sides,” said juror Greg Van Cleave, a 26-year-old Coeur d’Alene resident. “We were putting together a puzzle without all the pieces.”

The Spokesman-Review contacted seven jurors, and two agreed to be interviewed. Jurors ranged in age from 30 to 60, and all were white except a Filipino-American woman.

Occupations included a waitress, a bank employee, a construction worker, and a retired sheriff’s deputy who once was called to the Aryan Nations compound in Hayden Lake.

Van Cleave, an unemployed computer technician, said the group was not predisposed to bankrupting the Aryan Nations.

“We’re not trying to hurt an 82-year old man,” he said, referring to Butler.

But another juror, Judy Jacobson of Spirit Lake, strongly disagreed. Jacobson said she and two other women were the only ones holding the jury back from awarding a much larger damage claim.

“They wanted to get the Aryan Nations out of the country,” said Jacobson, a 45-year-old carpet layer. “(But) I’m not going to force this guy out of his property and his home, just because you don’t believe in his beliefs.”

However, when all 12 jurors were polled in the courtroom by the judge, all said they agreed that Butler was liable, grossly negligent and deserved the damage claim of $6.3 million.

Jacobson said she and two other jurors initially thought $1 million in damages would have been enough. But the majority of jurors wanted to see Butler kicked out of the state.

Countered Van Cleave, “Truthfully, none of us had decided until we went into that room. We made a decision we can live with.”