Aryan Warriors trial to begin amid threats of violence

By Jeff German (contact)

Sunday, May 17, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Leading members and associates of the Aryan Warriors, a violent white supremacist prison gang, are set to stand trial on federal racketeering charges Monday under heavy security.

Federal authorities consider the Aryan Warriors, who have been committing acts of violence within Nevada’s prison system for more than 30 years, a domestic terrorist group. Before the federal crackdown on the gang two years ago, it had expanded its criminal activities outside the prison system.

An FBI intelligence report from Washington warned months ago that the gang was planning “unspecified major disruptions” during the trial. Authorities publicly downplayed the threat at the time, but concerns were also raised in the report about the safety of the “prosecution team members in Nevada.”

In recent court papers, prosecutors also disclosed that threats were made against some of their witnesses.

And last week, the federal judge presiding over the two-month trial issued a rare order allowing prosecutors to withhold the identities and statements of 10 witnesses from the defense until just before their testimony, rather than make the disclosures at the start of the trial, as prosecutors normally would do.

“The court further finds that the (Aryan Warriors) are capable of locating the witnesses and carrying out such threats and assaults and that the witnesses cannot be adequately protected from physical harm if their identities are revealed well in advance of their anticipated testimony,” U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson wrote.

Citing safety reasons, prosecutors also last week asked Dawson to keep secret the identities of the jurors selected in the case and order the defendants to remain shackled during the trial. Prosecutors warned that gang members “have the capacity to harm jurors.”

U.S. Marshal Gary Orton, who has the task of protecting the federal courthouse, would not discuss additional security measures being put in place, but courthouse security officers said that among other things, no one will be allowed to bring cell phones, laptop computers and other electronic devices into the courtroom.

Adding to the concern is that the July 2007 indictment of the Aryan Warriors, who rose to power promoting white separatism, has not significantly curtailed the gang’s operations within prison walls.

Nevada Prison Director Howard Skolnik said the Aryan Warriors are back to operating at a high level under new leadership.

“They’re just as active, but I don’t know how effective they are,” Skolnik said.

A new strategy of spreading gang members throughout the prison system, rather than keeping them segregated at one or two facilities, is allowing authorities to better keep the Aryan Warriors and other gangs in check, Skolnik explained.

“We try to balance them out so that the only group that’s truly in charge of the prison system is us,” he said.

Prison officials have identified the Aryan Warriors as one of six major “security threat groups” that have a combined membership of 4,000 inmates, nearly one-third of the prison population of 12,700.

With only about 100 members, the gang is small, but authorities consider it one of the most violent in the prison system.

In court papers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Bliss said she expects to present evidence at trial that the Aryan Warriors “terrorized the Nevada prisons” and many parts of the Las Vegas Valley. The indictment charges gang members with killings and assaults, trafficking in drugs and corrupting corrections officers.

Prosecutors identified in court papers several former gang members and associates they plan to call to the witness stand to testify about the violent world of the Aryan Warriors.

One of those witnesses, Guy Almony, is a former defendant in the case who was stabbed by other reputed Aryan Warriors at the North Las Vegas Detention Center in November 2007 while they all were waiting to stand trial.

The man prosecutors consider at the top of the gang’s chain of command, Ronald “Joey” Sellers, allegedly participated in the attack. Sellers is not being tried with the others because prosecutors are going through the lengthy bureaucratic process of seeking the death penalty for him. Sellers is also battling a potentially fatal liver disease.

Six of the original 14 defendants named in the 2007 indictment are to stand trial on Monday. Six others struck plea agreements with the government, three of which were finalized last week, as the trial approached.

Charges against Almony were dropped, and he became a witness for the government after his stabbing. He will testify about numerous other assaults and extortions committed within the state prison system by gang members, as well as how corrections officers were corrupted, prosecutors said in their court papers.

Prosecutors also plan to call Michael Kennedy, a former Aryan Warriors leader who was attacked in prison by fellow gang members over a drug dealing dispute. He will testify about the gang’s racist culture and way of life behind bars.

Michael Alvarez, a former ranking member of the rival Hispanic gang, Surenos, will testify about an unholy alliance between the Aryan Warriors and the Surenos at the Ely State Prison that helped both gangs profit from drug trafficking and illegal gambling.

Prosecutors said Alvarez has knowledge of a corrections officer who was paid by gang members to assist the drug operation.

Other witnesses will testify about how the Aryan Warriors allegedly used corrections officers to provide them with confidential information that could be used to extort other inmates and to allow them access to telephones to communicate with gang members outside the prison system.

Federal authorities have not charged any corrections officers with crimes, but some have been disciplined by prison officials in the wake of the federal revelations.

Skolnik said federal authorities have not provided prison officials with information that could be used to substantiate criminal wrongdoing by any corrections officers.

But a superseding indictment of the defendants returned a year ago explains how the gang allegedly corrupts officers to further its criminal activities and gain control of prison yards.

Some guards are bribed with cash and drugs, and others simply cooperate out of fear of being physically harmed by the Aryan Warriors, the indictment alleges. Other officers are sympathetic to the gang because they share its racist views.

Prosecutors expect to present into evidence a confiscated Aryan Warriors manifesto that espouses those views and instructs members how to abide by a white separatist code. The manifesto contains 16 commandments that make use of disturbing racial and anti-Semitic language, all designed to promote the supremacy of the Aryan culture.

Although the six defendants standing trial are in federal custody, prison authorities will be watching the trial closely to see whether fallout from any testimony makes its way to the prison system.

Skolnik is reluctant to talk about his efforts to harness the new Aryan Warriors leadership because he fears his words might upset the delicate balance of security being maintained by corrections officers.

But he said prison officials have a new way of approaching the gang problem.

“We’ve started providing training to our staff about the culture and the behavior of these groups,” he said. “And we’re acknowledging that it’s a problem, where in the past we tended to deny that these groups exist.”

Officials have come to understand that they’re dealing today with second- and third-generation gang members who are “more sophisticated and steeped in the gang mentality,” Skolnik said.

Officials also have reevaluated how they classify inmates and are no longer are afraid to send someone with a gang tattoo to a prison camp, he explained.

“If they qualify for a camp, they can go to a camp or any other program,” he said. “It gives them a reason to behave.”