http://www.sltrib.com/09122000/nation_w/21447.htm
 
Aryan Nations' Leader Says It 'Isn't Over'
Tuesday, September 12, 2000

  
BY NICHOLAS
K. GERANIOS

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HAYDEN LAKE, Idaho -- There's a
silver bust of Adolf Hitler in the church. A
guardtower is decorated with Nazi flags.
German shepherds roam the grounds.
And swastikas are everywhere. 
This is the wooded, 20-acre compound
that the Aryan Nations will have to
relinquish after losing a civil lawsuit. 
But it's not clear when the winners of
the lawsuit can take possession. And it's
unlikely the loss of the compound means
the end of the Aryan Nations. 
"This isn't over," Aryan Nations
founder Richard Butler said at a weekend
news conference. "We are going to find a
way to go on." 
Butler, 82, could move his Church of
Jesus Christ Christian/Aryan Nations to
another location. Or he could concentrate
his activities on the Internet, where Aryan
Nations already has a home page. 
Perhaps the most immediate decision is
whether to appeal the $6.3 million
judgment a jury awarded to a woman and
her son who were assaulted by Aryan
Nations security guards. 
Butler has repeatedly said that he
doesn't have the $960,000 bond required
by Idaho law to file an appeal. 
But he's planning to ask for a new trial
before the Sept. 18 deadline. If 1st
District Judge Charles Hosack denies a
new trial, Butler would have 54 days to
file an appeal. 
Butler was also ordered to appear at a
hearing on Oct. 13 to testify under oath
about his assets. 
The plaintiffs could then pursue a court
order to force a sheriff's sale of the Aryan
Nations' assets. Or Butler could be forced
into bankruptcy. 
On Friday, attorneys for Victoria and
Jason Keenan sent a certified letter to
Butler saying they intend to move
immediately to claim the neo-Nazi group's
assets. 
Attorney Norm Gissel of Coeur
d'Alene, Idaho, wrote that his clients want
"all posters, artwork, memorabilia, Nazi
symbols, swastikas, altars, pulpits, church
benches, plaques, flags, Aryan Nations
symbols, weapons" and other items. 
The letter warned Butler not to try to
remove or destroy any of the items. 
"I'll leave the property just as it is,"
Butler said. 
Morris Dees, whose Southern Poverty
Law Center was behind the civil damages
suit, said he wants to take possession to
the very name "Aryan Nations" and retire
it. Butler vowed he would continue using
the name anyway. 
Butler was upset by Dees' suggestion
that the compound be turned into a
museum of tolerance. 
"He wants to bring little children up
here and say, 'This is where hate is,' "
Butler said. "Anything pro-white is hate." 
Butler, a widower, has no plans to
resist eviction from the property. 
"I'll leave the property," he said, adding
that he may be sleeping "on a park
bench." 
   Whatever happens, Butler is not going
quietly. He has filed a request for a permit
to parade down the streets of nearby
Coeur d'Alene in October. 
"We may have lost a battle," Butler
said. "But we haven't lost the war." 

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