Trial Security Cost $100,000

The price of security topped $100,000 for Kootenai County deputies and the Idaho State Police at the Aryan Nations civil trial.

Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson said the county’s share of the bill is $94,276.57, but he expected it to be more.

“I would have said $100,000. We spent about that on the (1998 Aryan Nations) parade,” Watson said. “But as we progressed through the trial, I thought it would come in lower.”

The Idaho State Police spent $13,178.34 on the trial in which Victoria and Jason Keenan won a $6.3million judgment against Richard Butler and the Aryan Nations.

The trial started Aug. 28 with a confrontation between Irv Rubin, leader in Los Angeles of the Jewish Defense League, and several Aryan sympathizers.

Both sides yelled but didn’t throw any punches.

After an alleged beating of a skinhead Aug. 30 at the Aryan Nations compound north of Hayden Lake, most of the Aryans steered clear of the trial.

That made the job of security much easier, Watson said.

“I think the Aryans disappeared because they didn’t know the (medical) condition of the man who left the compound,” Watson said. “Their paranoia kept them away. I visualized them barricaded up there (at the compound) waiting for us to crash the gate.”

An investigation into the incident is continuing. The victim told investigators he was rock climbing and fell on some rocks.

Rubin left after the first week of the trial.

“It all kind of fizzled out. We had the elements, they fell apart and that’s great,” Watson said.

The Coeur d’Alene Police Department, which also supported the security effort with several officers, has not yet released its cost figures.

Sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger said it’s hard to measure success on a security operation.

“It was our goal to have a high presence and no incidents,” Wolfinger said. “We succeeded.”