Ex-Aryan leader gets 6 months

SANDPOINT – A former leader of the neo-Nazi group Aryan Nations who spent nearly five years on the run before being captured in April has been sentenced after pleading guilty to felony drunken driving and felony bail jumping.

The plea agreement and sentencing on Friday require R. Vincent Bertollini, 67, to serve two one- to four-year sentences at the same time and pay a $10,000 fine. All but six months of the two sentences are suspended, as is $2,000 of the fine.

In the deal, agreed to by Senior District Judge James Michaud, misdemeanor charges of bail jumping and resisting arrest were dismissed.

“The court has no reason to withdraw from the agreement,” said Michaud.

Michaud asked Bertollini if he would like to make a statement after pleading guilty in 1st District Court.

“No, Your Honor,” Bertollini said after a brief pause, the Bonner County Daily Bee reported.

Bertollini still faces federal firearms charges stemming from his arrest on April 12 in Santa Fe, N.M. FBI agents said they found eight firearms, including a sawed-off shotgun, during the arrest.

Bertollini vanished from Bonner County in July 2001 shortly before he was scheduled to stand trial on his third drunken-driving arrest in Idaho in a five-year period.

Before fleeing, Bertollini and millionaire Carl E. Story operated the 11th Hour Remnant Messenger in Sandpoint, hosting a Web site, mass-mailing posters and videos and helping bankroll Aryan Nations founder Richard G. Butler.

A previous plea agreement with Bertollini collapsed in June when Judge Steven C. Verby said he would not be bound by prosecutors’ sentencing recommendations. One of those recommendations was to allow Bertollini to serve his sentence in New Mexico.

On Friday, Bertollini asked to be remanded to federal authorities in New Mexico. But Michaud said he could not make such an order, saying there are legal channels Bertollini can go through to be transferred out of Bonner County.