Jury Weighs Fate of Aryan Nations
C O E U R D’ A L E N E, Idaho, Sept. 7 -- A lawyer who has said he hopes tobankrupt the Aryan Nations has asked jurors to award $11.26 millionto a mother and son who were attacked by guards for the whitesupremacist sect.
In closing arguments Wednesday, attorney Morris Dees suggested$10 million in punitive damages and $1.26 million in compensatorydamages as a way for jurors to send a message to hate groups acrossthe nation.
Jurors are deciding whether Aryan Nations leader Richard Butlerand chief of staff Michael Teague were negligent in overseeing thegroup’s security staff. They began deliberations late Wednesdayafter six days of testimony and were to continue today.
Victoria and Jason Keenan said they were chased, shot at andassaulted while searching for a lost wallet on July 1, 1998, infront of the Aryan Nations compound north of Coeur d’Alene.
Lower Award SuggestedLawyer Edgar Steele, who represents Butler, Teague and thegroup, suggested the Keenans be awarded $4,000 to $10,000 each fortheir distress.
He blamed only two security guards who took part in the attackand said Butler was not responsible. Steele argued that JesseWarfield and John Yeager were drunk, against regulations, when theyattacked the Keenans.
Warfield and Yeager, who represented themselves, brieflyaddressed the jury Wednesday, taking responsibility for the attackbut steadfastly refusing to implicate Butler, 82. Both men areserving prison sentences for the assaults, and a third former guardremains a fugitive.
Purveyor of HateDees, of the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center,characterized Butler as a purveyor of hate whose vision of Americais one of white superiority.
“You are the conscience of this community,” Dees told jurors.“Tell Richard Butler, ‘We don’t believe in your America, Mr.Butler.’”
Dees, who has previously won large awards against the Ku KluxKlan and other hate groups, has said he hopes the case willbankrupt the Aryan Nations.
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