White supremacist Matt Hale, the World Church of the Creator leader whose Northwestern visit three years ago met with fierce student protest, was arrested Wednesday in Chicago on charges he tried to have a federal judge murdered.
Federal agents arrested Hale, 31, of East Peoria, Ill., and charged him with soliciting the murder of U.S. District Judge Joan H. Lefkow, who ruled against him in a recent trademark case. FBI agents and members of the Joint Terrorist Task Force arrested Hale at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in downtown Chicago, where he was scheduled to appear for a contempt-of-court hearing.
The federal indictment alleges that Hale tried to hire someone to murder Lefkow, an NU Law School graduate, between Nov. 29 and Dec. 17.
Hale also was charged with obstruction of justice for trying to “influence, intimidate and impede” the judge in her work on the trademark case. She ruled that Hale’s organization must give up printed materials and Web site addresses bearing the previously trademarked name “World Church of the Creator.”
In 2000, Hale visited NU in an attempt to form a campus religious group allied with his organization. He was unsuccessful in his effort, and his visit triggered protests by students and community members.
U.S. Attorney Peter Fitzgerald said Hale’s views should not allow him to harm another person, especially a judge.
“Freedom of speech does not include the freedom to solicit murder,” Fitzgerald said during a news conference Wednesday. “The conduct alleged in this indictment is disturbing on many levels, but particularly so because it targeted a judge, whose sworn duty is to apply the law equally and fairly to all who appear before her.”
Mark Potok, spokesman for the Montgomery, Ala.-based anti-hate group Southern Poverty Law Center, told The Daily he was pleased with the indictment.
“This is very likely the end of the World Church of the Creator,” he said.
In 1999, a former member of Hale’s church killed two people and wounded nine over the July 4 weekend. Among the dead was former NU men’s basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong. Six months later, Hale made his controversial visit to Evanston, where he collided with protesters outside of the Technological Institute.
Hale now could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the solicitation of murder charge and up to 10 years for the obstruction charge.
Lefkow ruled against Hale twice in the last two months. In November, she ruled in favor of the TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation, an Oregon religious group that holds the trademark for the term “Church of the Creator.” Lefkow ordered Hale’s organization to stop using the name, hand over all printed materials with the name on it and give up control of its Web site domain name.
Hale refused and moved the organization’s headquarters to Riverton, Wyo. He also filed a class-action lawsuit against Lefkow in federal court in Peoria, alleging that the judge’s ruling violated his adherents’ First-, Fourth- and Fifth- Amendment rights, according to the church’s Web site.
The church’s move to Wyoming did not satisfy the terms of Lefkow’s ruling, since the patent was registered with the federal government and not the Illinois state government.
In December, Lefkow asked Hale to show why his organization should not be held in contempt of court. Hale was going to court Wednesday for the contempt hearing when agents arrested him as he passed through the metal detector in the courthouse lobby.
Witnesses said Hale supporters in the lobby yelled protests after the arrest.
Hale said last month he had followers in every state and 34 countries, but Potok doubted that claim.
“I’d be very surprised if (the Church of the Creator) ever had 300 members,” he said.
Potok said Hale’s lofty rhetoric hid a failed and sheltered life.
“When all is said and done,” Potok said, “Matt Hale is a guy who’s never had a job, never lived in any house other than his daddy’s and who, at the end of the day, goes to sleep in a bed with a row of teddy bears on it.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
