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Tuesday, Feb 9, 2010
Two months after one of the suspects admitted to the crimes, the Justice Department finally acts in a high-profile hate case.
Mar 18, 2000 | After a nine-month investigation, federal officials announced Friday they have indicted white supremacist brothers Matthew and Tyler Williams on charges of torching three Sacramento-area synagogues last summer.
The indictments will include charges that the two also set a fire at a medical building in Sacramento two weeks after the synagogue fires as part of an attack against an abortion clinic inside the structure, sources say.
Both brothers are in jail awaiting trial on two murder charges in Redding, 180 miles north of Sacramento. The murders and arsons seemed to kick off a nationwide hate spree that rocked the country last summer, when they were followed by the Midwest shooting rampage by Benjamin Smith, a former World Church of the Creator adherent, and the Jewish day care killings in Los Angeles blamed on white supremacist Buford Furrow Jr.
The long-awaited indictments brought a sense of relief to Sacramento's Jewish community, where leaders have been extremely frustrated by the slow pace of the probe.
Law-enforcement officials have said there was little reason to hurry since both brothers already were in jail on the murder charges, but in recent months even they have expressed dismay at how long the case has taken to win approval in Washington.
In an extremely unusual process, the Williams case was reviewed at the Justice Department by the criminal section of the civil rights division, the anti-terrorism unit of the criminal division and the appellate unit directly under Attorney General Janet Reno. The attorney general also personally signed off on the case.
The sensitive nature of the case stems from concern that the synagogue fires might have been related to other hate crimes that plagued the nation last year, including the Smith and Furrow killings.
The trials for the Williams brothers are expected to be explosive, particularly because of Matthew Williams' unpredictable behavior since his arrest.
Although his younger brother has said nothing publicly since their arrests, Matthew has been outspoken in professing his anti-Semitic, anti-gay, white supremacist beliefs.
He has grown a Hitler-like mustache while in jail, and has talked about wanting to wear a Nazi-style uniform in court.
Williams has made it clear that he wants to use his murder trial as a platform to espouse his views, and has said his defense in the murder case will be based on his belief that the Bible condemns homosexuality and that killing gay people is not a violation of God's law.
In recent months he has admitted to reporters that he committed the murders he is accused of because the two men were gay; that he was one of a group of eight or nine men who torched the synagogues last June; and that he helped set a fire two weeks after that aimed at destroying a Sacramento abortion clinic.
"This case is strictly a walk in the park," cracked his frustrated attorney, Frank J. O'Connor. "It's the client control that's so good."
Despite constant pleas from O'Connor that Williams clam up, the young landscaper and survivalist has continued his bid for publicity for his anti-Semitic, anti-gay and racist views.
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