Words Continue To Haunt Bill White

Even after his family posted his $25,000 bond, Bill White's nightmare continues. Just five days after his release, Bill had to turn himself back in to await the ruling of the appealate court as prosecuters claim that the words he spoke were not those of someone who could be considered safe for the community.

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Neo-Nazi leader William A. White was sent back to jail Wednesday by a federal appeals court.

White, who is charged with threatening people by e-mail and online, was released on a $25,000 bond last week by U.S. District Court Judge James Turk.

In jail since last October, White enjoyed just five days of freedom before the latest development in a yearlong series of court battles over his bond.

At the request of federal prosecutors, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals entered a stay of Turk's decision -- meaning that White will remain in custody while the bond issue is appealed.

The government contends that White is a danger to the Roanoke community, citing Web site postings in which he wrote of his urge to "kill, kill, kill" and of his plans to go on a murderous rampage.

White turned himself in to the Roanoke City Jail about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday after learning of the court's order, defense attorney David Damico said.

At a hearing Friday, Turk placed White on home electronic monitoring, basing his decision to release White from jail on testimony from a psychiatrist who determined the 32-year-old was not a danger to the community.

That finding has been hotly disputed by prosecutors, who have cited White's own words during a series of bond hearings and appeals that have involved four judges and two appellate courts in Virginia and Chicago.

In a filing last week to the 4th Circuit, Justice Department attorney Paige Fitzgerald wrote that perhaps the most revealing comment from White was what he said on the witness stand during his first bond hearing in October.

"You could kill a whole lot of people, and you still wouldn't be killing very many who had any value," White testified at the time.

"That's my general outlook on the world. I don't place a lot of value on mundane people. I think most people live their lives in a way that's self-destructive, modernist, corrupt."
Magistrate Judge Michael Urbanski, who presided over the hearing, said at a subsequent hearing that it was one of the most chilling moments he has experienced while on the bench.

At that October hearing, Urbanski ordered White held without bond on a charge that he encouraged violence against the foreman of a Chicago jury that convicted a fellow white supremacist.

But after a federal judge in Chicago dismissed the charge in July -- ruling that White's actions were protected by the First Amendment -- Urbanski decided to release White earlier this month when he was returned to Roanoke to face a second set of charges.

Federal prosecutors appealed Urbanski's ruling to Turk and then appealed again to the 4th Circuit when Turk also decided to release White.

A Dec. 9 trial date has been scheduled for White, who is charged in Roanoke with threatening a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, a civil rights attorney from Canada, a university administrator and others who did not share his white supremacist views.

Prosecutors say White made his threats online and by e-mail and telephone.

White, who heads the Roanoke-based American National Socialist Workers Party, is expected to raise