← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · xmetalhead
Thread ID: 17664 | Posts: 16 | Started: 2005-03-05
2005-03-05 15:25 | User Profile
[SIZE=3][COLOR=DarkRed]The Railroading of Matt Hale[/COLOR][/SIZE]
by Edgar J. Steele
March 4, 2005
I've held my tongue on the Matt Hale case until now because I have agreed with him to serve as defense counsel in his anticipated retrial.
You see, Hale was declared a domestic terrorist and has been held incommunicado under provisions of the draconian and woefully-misnamed Patriot Act. Those associated with the case have been required to sign "SAM" (Special Administrative Procedure") documents which require their public silence. The Feds mean business, too, as lawyers are sitting in federal prison cells right now, accused of violating SAM agreements in other cases. I haven't signed a SAM document in Hale's case yet because I have not taken on an official role. Of course, I haven't been given direct access to Hale, either. We have been forced to communicate in writing, by letter...when my letters haven't been denied to Hale and returned by the authorities, that is. Even so, an attorney-client relationship has existed between Hale and myself for some time now.
I bit my tongue throughout my defense of Richard Butler and the Aryan Nations several years ago, too, following conventional wisdom in the legal field. That was a mistake and the last, I vowed, that I would make in using media available in a high-profile case. While I sat and watched, Butler was tried and convicted in the media. Mind you, in retrospect, it is clear he was a goner before I ever took on the case, but it didn't help that I didn't sally forth on every TV and radio show I could find, to make his case and try to level the playing field.
Because of what I am about to tell you, the Feds can be expected to use this SAM business in an attempt to bar me from handling Hale's case if he manages to persuade an appellate court to give him the new trial he deserves. Nevertheless, someone in the legal field has to stand up for Matt Hale before things go any further. Nobody else will do so, it seems, so I take it upon myself even though it means that Hale likely will have to represent himself in any retrial. And I'm going to continue to speak out on Hale's case to all who will listen. He deserves a defense and he simply hasn't been getting it. In fact, Matt Hale has been on the business end of one of the most massive railroad jobs I have seen occur in modern American courts (and that is saying something!).
Obviously, what motivates me to change position today is the lynching Hale is receiving in the media as a result of the murder of Judge Lefkow's husband and mother.
First, I offer sincere condolences to Judge Lefkow. Nothing could possibly justify what has been done to her family and herself. Nothing. Illegal acts as heinous as murder are the final resort of those both brutish and misinformed. I cannot more clearly condemn what has taken place, regardless of who is responsible (and I think I know where to point the finger, as you will learn shortly).
Having said all that, let me next say that Matt Hale is innocent. He is innocent of having anything to do with the Lefkow murders. Furthermore, Hale is innocent of the charge of conspiracy to murder Judge Lefkow, for which he was convicted and now sits in jail, awaiting sentencing. Additionally, Hale is innocent of the original charge of trademark infringement which supposedly led Hale to take part in a plot to kill the judge. Please pay close attention, because I am going to prove all these things to you today, in this very essay, with but a smattering of simple logic and the application of a couple of well-founded principles of law.
At every turn, for years now, Matt Hale has been railroaded, ramrodded and gulled by the very system which now presumes to pass sentence and punish him for crimes he did not commit. Matt Hale is a political prisoner in every sense of the word. Keep an open mind for the next few minutes and see if you don't agree.
Let's take things chronologically:
Matt Hale headed up the World Church of the Creator (WCOTC), a branch of the "Creativity" religion. Creativity is a bona-fide, court-recognized, non-Christian religion, despite its highly-controversial and self-avowed White Supremacist nature (see Peterson vs. Wilmur Communications, 205 F.Supp.2d 1014, 2002 - go here for court's opinion). Founded in 1973 by Ben Klassen, Hale resurrected WCOTC in 1996 and ran it continuously under that name through 2002. Violence was a hallmark of Klassen's stewardship, whereas under Hale WCOTC members generally behaved themselves...with one notable exception (see 3, below).
Matt Hale was wrongfully denied the right he earned to be a lawyer. In June 1998, Hale graduated from the Southern Illinois University School of Law and soon thereafter passed the Illinois State Bar. He was denied admission to the Bar, and the license to practice law he had earned, though his record was spotless. The denial was on the basis of Hale's racial beliefs (part and parcel of his court-recognized religion, don't forget), though Blacks in prison for racially-motivated murders of Whites have earned law degrees and been welcomed with open arms to the practice of law upon their parole.
A WCOTC adherent went on a killing spree on July 2, 1999, the day that Hale announced he had been denied admission to the Illinois state bar by an administrative appeals board. Though the timing is more than suggestive, there never has been a hint that Hale suggested or countenanced the murderous rampage by Benjamin Smith directed at Blacks, Jews and Asians, which left two dead and nine wounded.
WCOTC's very name was stolen by the ADL, with the aid of the courts. In 2000, an Oregon corporation, Te-Ta-Ma, secretly founded and funded by the ADL through its Regional Director, Richard Hirschhaut, applied for and received a trademark on the phrase "Church of the Creator." Shortly thereafter, in May 2000, the ADL filed suit in Illinois Federal District Court through its straw man, Te-Ta-Ma, against Hale and WCOTC for trademark infringement. Judge Lefkow ruled against the ADL, which appealed her ruling and persuaded a three-judge panel to issue an order directing Judge Lefkow to reverse herself and grant judgment to Te-Ta-Ma. Lefkow followed orders, as she legally was bound to do, and subsequently threatened to hold Hale in contempt for failing to turn over every publication which bore the WCOTC name. Hale responded that he possessed none, as he had stepped aside as head of WCOTC to concentrate on the court appeal of his bar admission denial. As Hale prepared to defend himself on the contempt charge, he was arrested by the FBI and charged with conspiracy to commit the murder of Judge Lefkow...the very Federal judge who previously had ruled in his favor, not of any of the appellate justices who sided with the ADL against him.
Hale's entrapment was engineered by the FBI. An FBI plant, Anthony Evola, wormed his way into Hale's confidence and was named head of WCOTC's security force (Hale and his followers regularly received death threats and had been the targets of multiple assaults and property vandalizations through the years). Evola secretly recorded conversations with Hale that were, at worst, noncommittal concerning Evola's offer to "exterminate...the Jew rat" (a male Jew rat, as transcripts made clear). At one point, Hale was recorded as saying, "I'm going to fight within the law." Also, note that, while Judge Lefkow is married to a Jew, she herself is not Jewish, a fact known at the time to both Hale and the FBI.
Hale's trial was a sham. The FBI plant, Evola, testified that, during a conversation wherein he asked if Hale wanted him to "get the rat," Hale nodded affirmatively. Never was any evidence presented other than that single bit of testimony concerning Hale's alleged approval of the FBI scheme. A good deal of circumstantial and highly prejudicial evidence, especially concerning Benjamin Smith's rampage, was allowed, however. Directly upon the State resting its case, Hale's attorney, noted Chicago criminal defense lawyer and former Federal prosecutor Thomas Durkin, rose and rested Hale's defense without calling a single witness or introducing a single shred of evidence. Durkin reportedly made numerous remarks derogatory to his own client throughout the trial both during the State's case and during closing argument. I understand the ploy: by acting has he did, Durkin presumably hoped to make plain the weakness of the State's case. Problem is, Durkin didn't understand how juries respond to politically-incorrect defendants (though, prior to the trial, Durkin personally assured me that he well understood the situation in which he found Matt Hale, an assurance I passed on to Hale's family and that played a large part in their retaining Durkin; an assurance that retrospect now shows me to have been either a lie or merely incompetent).
I can just imagine the conversations in the jury room during deliberations: "He never took the stand to defend himself, so he must be guilty." "His lawyer kept putting him down and then didn't even present a defense, so he must be guilty." "The Feds never lie, so he must be guilty." "Nasty White Supremacist - he must be guilty."
Remember the composition of the jury: Black, Jewish and Asian, the very sort of people previously targeted by Benjamin Smith; the very sort of people that Hale repeatedly was shown to have denigrated down through the years.
Why was there no change of venue sought and granted, in order to get the trial moved out of the highly-inflammatory Chicago area, where the jury composition was highly predictable?
Why did lawyer Durkin put his own client down in front of the jury and then decline to put on even a bare case?
Why wasn't Matt Hale called to the witness stand? After all, Hale is a lawyer and could be expected to carefully couch his answers and be on the lookout for prosecutorial traps.
Why would Hale solicit the murder of the only judge who had ruled in his favor?
How, exactly, did Hale engineer the murder of Lefkow's family members, while his own family and lawyers, including myself, have been denied access to him?
Judge Lefkow ruled correctly in Hale's favor in the first instance - it was the appellate panel that was wrong. I studied intellectual property law extensively at UCLA under the man who quite literally wrote "the book": Professor Mel Nimmer. If Mel Nimmer were alive today, he would tell you about the established practice in this sort of case of disallowing such a trademark in geographic areas in which prior usage of it by another could be established, just as had been done by Hale and WCOTC.
Elementary law supports Hale in his quest for a law license and to protect the name WCOTC. Elementary logic disputes any inference that he wanted Judge Lefkow dead. If he wanted a judge dead for the trademark ruling, he had three candidates that apparently he never considered. Why, then, would he consider Judge Lefkow?
That brings us to the Lefkow murders this past week. Judge Lefkow's husband and mother were executed in the basement of their home with a .22-caliber weapon. The weapon's caliber is of significance because the .22 is a favored weapon of the highly-skilled assassin. When used with subsonic ammunition, a .22-caliber weapon makes only a slight "pop" in the background, usually not noticeable, even, to people standing nearby. It requires extreme accuracy to be effective, which, in turn, requires extreme closeness to the victim. Having personally had to shoot pigs with a .22 rifle, preparatory to butchering them on my Idaho ranch, I can attest to how precisely even a brain shot must be made. In short, it requires a trained, seasoned assassin to kill others with a .22-caliber weapon.
Furthermore, two men with "military-style" haircuts were shooed away from an area adjacent to the judge's house earlier in the day by someone who noted that they were parked illegally in a red zone. Go here for CNN's article today, which includes a sketch of one of the men.
Recall all the hoopla about Mossad hit squads roaming the world, including America, committing murders of those considered to be enemies of Israel? Recall how they have been fingered in more than one "false-flag" operation lately? Recall all the Israeli "art students" and "moving company employees" in the past two or three years, deported from America before they could be prosecuted for crimes they had committed?
Cui bono (who benefits)? In reality, who benefits from the execution of the Lefkow family members? Who are the alleged mortal enemies of Matt Hale, the man now being lynched by the media?
Cui bono? Look at the CNN sketch. Does that man look Semitic to you? He does to me.
New America. An idea whose time has come.
EDGAR J. STEELE
[url]http://www.conspiracypenpal.com[/url]
Ed is the author of Defensive Racism - An Unapologetic Examination of Racial Differences, now available through [url]www.Amazon.com[/url], though you can get a $5 discount by ordering directly from the publisher. Visit [url]www.DefensiveRacism.com[/url]
2005-03-05 15:56 | User Profile
It would have been easier for the Mossad to assassinate Hale originally. I don't think things have reached the level where peripheral characters like Lefkow are being murdered by the Jewish supremacists. Other than that, it is a nice succinct organization of events by Steele here.
2005-03-05 18:20 | User Profile
It's obvious that Matt Hale has been treated most unjustly. Not just once, but repeatedly.
I have another theory on the .22. These guns are cheap and easy to get.
And, non-professionals can kill with them easily enough.
2005-03-06 23:20 | User Profile
Well, good for Edgar Steele. Even the dribbliest of lib law profs would whine than even the most "reprehensible" deserve a defense. I suspect Hale's original lawyer didn't so much as drop the ball as get blindsided: he was correct that the case was incredibly weak, so maybe he assumed a conviction was unlikely -- or that a judge would set it aside. He assumed incorrectly. He didn't have a drug dealer on his hands --- he had a "white supremacist." It really is an incredible situation: by concocting a plot to kill the very judge on the case with their plant, the FBI pretty much guaranteed that no justice would be done for their target. Also, any appeals judge couldn't help but think of his or her own self while looking over the case, so Hale is screwed right down the line. That's the very definition of a railroading.
The problem being that Hale himself was so over the top with his sieg heils that he was bound to attract a degenerate element and isolate himself from white nationalists with different approaches. He does look ridiculous in those pictures. If you're a skinhead-avoider, the last thing you want to do is even speak about this case, because it makes you look like you're on Hale's "team."
It's yet another reminder that 1) there is no justice, 2) there is especially no justice for anyone advocating for whites, and 3) be careful who you associate with.
2005-04-06 18:43 | User Profile
See Also: [url=http://www.conspiracypenpal.com/columns/hale.htm]The Railroading of Matt Hale by Edgar J. Steele[/url]
[url]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,152597,00.html[/url]
White Supremacist Hale Gets 40 Years Wednesday, April 06, 2005
"Mr. Hale is not concerned about taking someone's life, but rather how to do it without getting caught," U.S. District Judge James Moody said in imposing the sentence. "I consider Mr. Hale to be extremely dangerous and the offense for which he was convicted to be extremely egregious."
Hale, 33, showed no emotion and sat staring at the defense table as the sentence was handed down. Moments earlier, he delivered a rambling statement in which he insisted that no crime had been committed.
Hale was convicted in April 2004 of soliciting an undercover FBI informant to murder U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow (search) of Chicago in retaliation for her ruling against him in a trademark dispute.
Prosecutors said Hale was furious that Lefkow ordered him to stop using the World Church of the Creator (search) name for his group. Lefkow said the name was trademarked by an Oregon-based church group.
The hearing comes weeks after Lefkow's husband and elderly mother were shot and killed in the Lefkow home. Early suspicion fell on Hale followers but days later a Chicago man disgruntled over a ruling in his medical malpractice lawsuit fatally shot himself in Wisconsin and confessed to the slayings in a note.
Hale acted as his own attorney during the sentencing, as he had for much of the trial. He compared himself to Lefkow, saying they were both victims.
"Before you does stand a man who not only is innocent, not only is demonstrably innocent, but who refused to join a plot against Judge Lefkow's life," Hale said.
[url]http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/04/06/white.supremacist.trial.ap/index.html[/url]
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Matthew Hale, an avowed white supremacist and leader of a group that preaches racial holy war, was sentenced to 40 years in prison Wednesday for trying to have a federal judge killed.
"Mr. Hale is not concerned about taking someone's life, but rather how to do it without getting caught," U.S. District Judge James Moody said in imposing the sentence. "I consider Mr. Hale to be extremely dangerous and the offense for which he was convicted to be extremely egregious."
Hale, 33, showed no emotion and sat staring at the defense table as the sentence was handed down. Moments earlier, he delivered a rambling statement in which he insisted that no crime had been committed.
Hale was convicted in April 2004 of soliciting an undercover FBI informant to murder U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow of Chicago in retaliation for her ruling against him in a trademark dispute.
Prosecutors said Hale was furious that Lefkow ordered him to stop using the World Church of the Creator name for his group. Lefkow said the name was trademarked by an Oregon-based church group.
The hearing comes weeks after Lefkow's husband and elderly mother were shot and killed in the Lefkow home. Early suspicion fell on Hale followers but days later a Chicago man disgruntled over a ruling in his medical malpractice lawsuit fatally shot himself in Wisconsin and confessed to the slayings in a note.
Hale acted as his own attorney during the sentencing, as he had for much of the trial. He compared himself to Lefkow, saying they were both victims.
"Before you does stand a man who not only is innocent, not only is demonstrably innocent, but who refused to join a plot against Judge Lefkow's life," Hale said.
[url]http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&u=/ap/white_supremacist_trial&printer=1[/url]
Supremacist Hale Sentenced to 40 Years
10 minutes ago
By MIKE ROBINSON, Associated Press Writer
CHICAGO - Matthew Hale, an avowed white supremacist and leader of a group that preaches racial holy war, was sentenced to 40 years in prison Wednesday for trying to have a federal judge killed.
AP Photo
"Mr. Hale is not concerned about taking someone's life, but rather how to do it without getting caught," U.S. District Judge James Moody said in imposing the sentence. "I consider Mr. Hale to be extremely dangerous and the offense for which he was convicted to be extremely egregious."
Hale, 33, showed no emotion and sat staring at the defense table as the sentence was handed down. Moments earlier, he delivered a rambling statement in which he insisted that no crime had been committed.
Hale was convicted in April 2004 of soliciting an undercover FBI informant to murder U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow of Chicago in retaliation for her ruling against him in a trademark dispute.
Prosecutors said Hale was furious that Lefkow ordered him to stop using the World Church of the Creator name for his group. Lefkow said the name was trademarked by an Oregon-based church group.
The hearing comes weeks after Lefkow's husband and elderly mother were shot and killed in the Lefkow home. Early suspicion fell on Hale followers but days later a Chicago man disgruntled over a ruling in his medical malpractice lawsuit fatally shot himself in Wisconsin and confessed to the slayings in a note.
Hale acted as his own attorney during the sentencing, as he had for much of the trial. He compared himself to Lefkow, saying they were both victims.
"Before you does stand a man who not only is innocent, not only is demonstrably innocent, but who refused to join a plot against Judge Lefkow's life," Hale said.
2005-04-07 04:58 | User Profile
"Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Innocent man gets 40 years!"
What a pathetic joke.
2005-04-07 08:15 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Kevin_O'Keeffe]"Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Innocent man gets 40 years!"
What a pathetic joke.[/QUOTE] What's a joke, the conviction/sentence or Hale?
I'm not really familar with the details in this case.
2005-04-07 08:27 | User Profile
I wonder - if they'd never solved the Lefkow murders - how a nervous judiciary...cognizant of the reality that now, [I]they [/I] can be gotten to....would've handled the sentencing. I say the Dutch courage the Lefkow case's eventual resolution gave the U.S. District Court I [I]added [/I] 20 years to Hale's sentence.
2005-04-07 21:24 | User Profile
I never thought of it that way. You might have something.
What confounds about the Hale case is that many of the serious-minded want to distance themselves from a character like him (and his followers), but the case is such an obvious injustice that it's hard to keep quiet. Whatever mistakes he made, he doesn't deserve this. Matt Hale has been so royally screwed by the powers that be from the get-go that it makes me queasy, from the denial of his law license on thought-crime grounds, to the out-of-nowhere civil attack on his group's name, to the complete set-up with the feds, to the false accusation that he had anything to do with the Lefkow murders. This kid has had some seriously bad luck.
It's worth noting, however, that he always gave his attackers an in: when he applied for the bar, for instance, he failed to disclose an arrest, I believe. That's a big no-no. Add his politics in, and he's out. When the federal plant suggested dirty deeds, he equivocated (though he certainly didn't "conspire" within the meaning of the criminal statute). And with Nazi theatrics, he got lots of attention, but alienated even "radical" groups like NA, thus creating the problem I mentioned above (though NVonline gives circumscribed defense of Hale).
Lesson: Cross T's and dot i's.
2005-04-07 23:39 | User Profile
The mainstream media uses words like "plotted" and "conspired" to explain what Hale was convicted for. These mainstream articles provide not a hint that there is no evidence of plotting or conspiring on the part of Hale.
I suppose Hale's job now is to appeal and find technical "errors" the judge made in the original case. Ironically, Hale's best chance for any degree of justice would probably be from a black appeals judge.
2005-04-08 10:14 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Okiereddust]What's a joke, the conviction/sentence or Hale?
I'm not really familar with the details in this case.[/QUOTE]
Both, but particularly the conviction itself; the man is clearly innocent. A paid agent provocateur in the employ of the FBI suggested killing Judge Lefkow, and Hale declined, saying he wanted to "wage the fight legally." But he was convicted for not dismissing the idea aggressively enough.
2005-04-08 11:12 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Okiereddust]What's a joke, the conviction/sentence or Hale?
I'm not really familar with the details in this case.[/QUOTE]
See: [url=http://www.conspiracypenpal.com/columns/hale.htm]The Railroading of Matt Hale by Edgar J. Steele[/url]
2005-04-08 17:57 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Kevin_O'Keeffe]But he was convicted for not dismissing the idea aggressively enough.[/QUOTE]
Correct. And on appeal, this should Point One. "Not dismissing the idea aggressively enough" is emphatically not conspiracy. You do not conspire for a crime by listening to someone announce they [I]they[/I] intend to commit a crime, and then saying "whatever." You must be an active participant in some manner. Therefore, even on the facts as adduced, Hale hasn't met the statutory standard. No need for a new trial. The conviction should tossed.
It's a subtle point, but important, especially when dealing with loosey-goosey charges like "conspiracy." A good mob lawyer would've been all over this like powdered sugar on a canoli. But Hale seems not to have gotten the best representation, and when you add "white supremacist," [I]it doesn't matter what the crucial factual details and legal technicalities are.[/I] That's not how our legal system is supposed to work. But then, it's not our legal system. It's theirs.
2005-04-08 19:02 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Hugh Lincoln]It's a subtle point, but important, especially when dealing with loosey-goosey charges like "conspiracy." A good mob lawyer would've been all over this like powdered sugar on a canoli. But Hale seems not to have gotten the best representation, and when you add "white supremacist," [I]it doesn't matter what the crucial factual details and legal technicalities are.[/I] That's not how our legal system is supposed to work. But then, it's not our legal system. It's theirs.[/QUOTE]Well he certainly didn't get the best representation, and it was done with Edgar Steele's own advice.
Face it, its a brave new world. WN's certainly can't really afford to even flirt with grey areas, if they hope to remain free and breathing.
2005-04-08 19:12 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Okiereddust]Face it, its a brave new world. WN's certainly can't really afford to even flirt with grey areas, if they hope to remain free and breathing.[/QUOTE] About the time of the Lefkow murders, I saw an interview with Hale's mother on the idiot box. The reporter apparently had actually read over the transcripts of Hale's conversations, and he was brave enough to cautiously state that he was unable to find any statements of Hale's in which he actually agreed to the murder. He then, of course, went on to say that it didn't really matter, since Hale was a white supremacist Nazi hater who deserved what he got. It was an interesting glimmer of candor, though.
2005-04-08 22:51 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Quantrill]About the time of the Lefkow murders, I saw an interview with Hale's mother on the idiot box. The reporter apparently had actually read over the transcripts of Hale's conversations, and he was brave enough to cautiously state that he was unable to find any statements of Hale's in which he actually agreed to the murder.
He then, of course, went on to say that it didn't really matter, since Hale was a white supremacist Nazi hater who deserved what he got. It was an interesting glimmer of candor, though.[/QUOTE]Probably the reporter was trying to distance himself from Hale. You definitely don't want to be accused of having closet sympathies for people like that, if you care what's good for your career.
Reading through the Steele piece, which I remember now, it strikes me that for a jury sympathetic to the defendent, the entrapment defense very often is an open and shut defense. Even where a fellow has gone ahead and done the crime, very often jury's have acquited defendents on the "well that God-awful gov't agent put him up to it".
But all sorts of legal issues run through this case too. All I can say is, you can cetainly see why Duke didn't want to risk a jury trial in the Big Easy. And why he is living in Ukraine, apparently in virtual exile, right now.
Wonder if there are any prominent WN organizations that "haven't" been targeted by the feds recently. Especially those that do more than just publish phamphlets and blogs and sell records. And it makes you a bit more suspicious about [B]any[/B] WN organization that seems to avoid legal trouble, really.
(Not that I'm personally complaining :ph34r:)