Sandpoint Supremacists May Back Appeal Request For Retrial Likely To Be First Move As Plaintiffs’ Attorneys Notify Butler Of Intent To Seize His Assets

Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler may be laying plans to appeal a $6.3 million jury award with financial banking from two wealthy white supremacists from Sandpoint.

Butler’s attorney has until Sept. 18 to file motions, which likely will include a request for a new trial.

If 1st District Court Judge Charles Hosack denies that request at a hearing he will schedule, Butler will then have 54 days to file an appeal.

The 82-year-old Aryan leader will appeal the jury’s verdict, “ABC World News Tonight” reported Friday.

Butler was resting and not talking to reporters Friday, a day after a 12-member jury returned its verdict in Coeur d’Alene.

He appeared tired but defiant after the verdict Thursday.

His attorney, Edgar Steele, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Butler has scheduled a news conference this afternoon at his Church of Jesus Christ Christian-Aryan Nations headquarters.

Butler and Steele were notified by certified letter on Friday that the plaintiffs intend to immediately move to seize assets to partially satisfy the judgment.

Attorney Norm Gissel reminded Butler of a court order “freezing” his assets, including 20 acres of land and personal property, owned by Butler and the Aryan Nations.

Gissel said his clients want “all posters, artwork, memorabilia, Nazi symbols, swastikas, alters, pulpits, church benches, plaques, flags, Aryan Nations symbols, weapons” and other property, including computers.

“Your clients or anyone acting in concert with them shall not dispose of, destroy, remove or in any way damage, alter, sell, transfer or encumber” any of the property, the letter warned Butler.

Butler also was ordered to appear Oct. 13 at a “debtor examination,” where he will have to testify under oath about his assets.

That appearance could be canceled if an appeal is filed.

“The likelihood is that this process is going to creep along rather than fly along,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Ken Howard of Coeur d’Alene.

Without an appeal, Butler would be required to divulge all his assets at the debtors examination.

The plaintiffs could then elect to get a court order forcing a sheriff’s sale to liquate the assets, or possibly could force Butler into involuntary bankruptcy.

If involuntary bankruptcy is chosen, a federal bankruptcy trustee would be charged with disposing of Butler’s assets to satisfy creditors, including the Keenans, Howard said.

The jury awarded $330,000 in compensatory damages and $6 million in punitive damages to plaintiffs Victoria and Jason Keenan. They were assaulted by Aryan guards in 1998.

Butler’s share of the compensatory and punitive damages is $5,097,000.

“That jury verdict was a piece of civil rights history in the United States and the Northwest,” Gissel said Friday as he answered dozens of media calls.

“We are about to write the final chapter,” said Gissel, an attorney and member of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations.

The Keenans first contacted Gissel, who in turn consulted Morris Dees and his Southern Poverty Law Center. Howard, a Coeur d’Alene trial attorney, also was brought into the suit.

Gissel, Howard, Dees and other attorneys for the Law Center took the case on a “pro bono” basis, meaning they did the legal work for free. The suit was filed in January 1999.

To appeal, Butler would have to post $900,000 - or 10 percent - to obtain the estimated $9 million appeal bond required by Idaho law.

Wealthy former California businessmen Carl Story and Vincent Bertollini, who head the 11th Hour Remnant Messenger in Sandpoint, have openly supported Butler.

Bertollini stood outside the Kootenai County Justice Center during several days of the eight-day trial.

He hinted that he and Story could come to Butler’s financial rescue, but made no specific commitment.

The two men promote the same Christian Identity, white-supremacy religion as that espoused by Butler.

Their 11th-Hour Messenger, which has no official members or followers, paid for mass mailings in 1998, including a videotape interview with Butler.

The costly mailings went to most residents of Bonner and Kootenai counties. Similar mailings went out shortly before the civil trial began Aug. 28.

This sidebar appeared with the story: ARYAN TRIAL What’s next

Butler’s attorneys have until Sept. 18 to file motions, which will likely include a request for a new trial. If the request is denied, Butler will have 54 days to file an appeal.