Indiana Judge to Preside Over White Supremacist’s Trial Involving Federal Court Judge
The Associated Press, Jan. 13, 2003
http://abcnews.go.com/
An Indiana jurist has been assigned to preside over the case of a white supremacist leader accused of asking someone to murder a federal judge hearing a lawsuit against him.
Monday’s decision was made so judges on the federal bench in Chicago would not have to sit in a case involving a colleague.
Matt Hale, 31, head of the World Church of the Creator, is charged with solicitation to commit murder. The alleged target, U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow, was hearing a trademark infringement suit against him.
U.S. District Judge James Moody, whose courtroom is in Hammond, Ind., will preside over the murder solicitation case.
Lefkow ruled in Hale’s favor in the infringement suit, in which an Oregon-based group sued Hale’s organization, claiming it held a trademark on the name “World Church of the Creator.” But her decision was overturned, and in November she ordered Hale to stop using the name. He was later arrested for solicitation to commit murder.
Hale, of East Peoria, is jailed pending a bond hearing.