Edgar Steele
Encyclopedia
Edgar J. Steele is a former American attorney
and author from northern Idaho
best known for serving as the defense attorney for Richard G. Butler, founder of a white supremacist organization, the Aryan Nations
. When Steele's wife, Cyndi, was contacted in May 2011 to confirm the widely-held notion that Steele represented the Aryan Nations organization, she specifically said her husband represented only Butler.
On June 11, 2010, Steele and another man were arrested and charged in connection with an alleged murder-for-hire
plot to kill Steele's wife and mother-in-law. Steele's wife and other supporters, including former Louisiana State Representative
David Duke
, have stated that the allegations were false, and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation
arrested Steele simply to silence him.
Steele was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder on May 5, 2011, and was sentenced to 50 years' imprisonment on November 9, 2011.
laws in defending Lonny Rae, a man who had been charged with malicious harassment for shouting the pejorative word "nigger
" at a referee
who had slightly injured Rae's wife, Kimberly (a reporter for a local newspaper), while trying to prevent her from taking a photograph following a high school football
match. Steele argued that the law breached the constitutional
right to free speech under the First Amendment
. Rae was cleared of this charge but sentenced to seven days imprisonment for assault
. Rae's conviction was overturned on appeal, which also was handled by Steele. Steele also formerly worked as a spokesman for Prussian Blue, a white supremacist pop music
duo active in the mid-2000s.
.
Subsequently, when Steele was already in police custody, a pipebomb was found under his wife's car when she took it in for an oil change, which brought the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms into the case, and Fairfax was arrested. The charging document for Fairfax's arrest includes an admission that he manufactured and installed the bomb.
, and Bonner County, Idaho
, until he was relocated to Boise
, Idaho, for the trial. His new defense team consisted of Colorado attorney Robert T. McAllister and Idaho attorney Gary Amendola.
Prosecutor Traci Whelan questioned Steele's wife Cyndi regarding her marital troubles with him. In 2000, Cyndi had caught her husband looking for women in California on match.com
; she posted her own profile with a fake name and got him to reply, after which she filed for divorce. In her petition, she asked for numerous damages, including child support payments of $1,400 per month, two of the family's vehicles, and their horse ranch in Sagle
, Idaho. The couple were reconciled a few months later and the divorce petition was dismissed. Nonetheless, the prosecution used this to show that Steele had a motive to kill his wife if he wanted a new girlfriend.
Steele's computer had been seized with his arrest. Under questioning, Cyndi admitted that her husband had sent 14,000 emails to large numbers of Ukrainian women between January and June 2010. Each of the women had received at least 10 emails or 100 instant messages. The prosecutor argued that this showed that Steele wanted new girlfriends, and had a motive to kill his wife.
, Idaho. After making a statement in his own defense, he was sentenced to 50 years' imprisonment.
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and author from northern Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
best known for serving as the defense attorney for Richard G. Butler, founder of a white supremacist organization, the Aryan Nations
Aryan Nations
Aryan Nations is a white supremacist religious organization originally based in Hayden Lake, Idaho. Richard Girnt Butler founded the group in the 1970s, as an arm of the Christian Identity organization Church of Jesus Christ–Christian...
. When Steele's wife, Cyndi, was contacted in May 2011 to confirm the widely-held notion that Steele represented the Aryan Nations organization, she specifically said her husband represented only Butler.
On June 11, 2010, Steele and another man were arrested and charged in connection with an alleged murder-for-hire
Contract killing
Contract killing is a form of murder, in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves an illegal agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for consideration, monetary, or otherwise. The hiring party may...
plot to kill Steele's wife and mother-in-law. Steele's wife and other supporters, including former Louisiana State Representative
Louisiana House of Representatives
The Louisiana House of Representatives is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the US state of Louisiana. The House is composed of 105 Representatives, each of whom represents approximately 42,500 people . Members serve four-year terms with a term limit of...
David Duke
David Duke
David Ernest Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan an American activist and writer, and former Republican Louisiana State Representative. He was also a former candidate in the Republican presidential primaries in 1992, and in the Democratic presidential primaries in...
, have stated that the allegations were false, and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
arrested Steele simply to silence him.
Steele was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder on May 5, 2011, and was sentenced to 50 years' imprisonment on November 9, 2011.
Notable cases
Steele defended Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler in a 2000 lawsuit, which he ultimately lost. In another case, Steele challenged Idaho's hate crimeHate crime
In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...
laws in defending Lonny Rae, a man who had been charged with malicious harassment for shouting the pejorative word "nigger
Nigger
Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
" at a referee
Referee
A referee is the person of authority, in a variety of sports, who is responsible for presiding over the game from a neutral point of view and making on the fly decisions that enforce the rules of the sport...
who had slightly injured Rae's wife, Kimberly (a reporter for a local newspaper), while trying to prevent her from taking a photograph following a high school football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
match. Steele argued that the law breached the constitutional
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
right to free speech under the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
. Rae was cleared of this charge but sentenced to seven days imprisonment for assault
Assault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
. Rae's conviction was overturned on appeal, which also was handled by Steele. Steele also formerly worked as a spokesman for Prussian Blue, a white supremacist pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
duo active in the mid-2000s.
Book
Steele is the author of the book Defensive Racism: An Unapologetic Examination of Racial Differences, in which he describes his views on the differences between the races of the world and questions the motives of political correctnessPolitical correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
.
Arrest for conspiracy to commit murder
In June 2010, Steele's handyman, Larry Fairfax, alleged to authorities that Steele was soliciting the murders of his wife and mother-in-law in a murder-for-hire plot. The FBI wired Fairfax for sound for a meeting between Fairfax and Steele where the plot would be discussed. Steele was thereafter arrested for conspiracy to commit murder.Subsequently, when Steele was already in police custody, a pipebomb was found under his wife's car when she took it in for an oil change, which brought the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms into the case, and Fairfax was arrested. The charging document for Fairfax's arrest includes an admission that he manufactured and installed the bomb.
Trial and imprisonment
Steele's trial began on March 7, 2011. He requested and received a new defense lawyer, but remained incarcerated in Spokane, WashingtonSpokane, Washington
Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...
, and Bonner County, Idaho
Bonner County, Idaho
Bonner County is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Idaho. Established in 1907, it was named for Edwin L. Bonner, a ferry operator. As of the 2010 census, the county had a population of 40,877. The county seat and largest city is Sandpoint.-History:Bonner County was formed...
, until he was relocated to Boise
Boise, Idaho
Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...
, Idaho, for the trial. His new defense team consisted of Colorado attorney Robert T. McAllister and Idaho attorney Gary Amendola.
Prosecutor Traci Whelan questioned Steele's wife Cyndi regarding her marital troubles with him. In 2000, Cyndi had caught her husband looking for women in California on match.com
Match.com
Match.com is an online dating company which reportedly has more than 20 million members, made up of a 49/51 male/female ratio, and Web sites serving 25 countries in more than 8 different languages. Its headquarters are in Dallas, Texas and the company also has offices in West Hollywood, Tokyo, Rio,...
; she posted her own profile with a fake name and got him to reply, after which she filed for divorce. In her petition, she asked for numerous damages, including child support payments of $1,400 per month, two of the family's vehicles, and their horse ranch in Sagle
Sagle, Idaho
Sagle is an unincorporated community in Bonner County, Idaho, United States. Sagle is south of Sandpoint. Sagle has a post office with ZIP code 83860....
, Idaho. The couple were reconciled a few months later and the divorce petition was dismissed. Nonetheless, the prosecution used this to show that Steele had a motive to kill his wife if he wanted a new girlfriend.
Steele's computer had been seized with his arrest. Under questioning, Cyndi admitted that her husband had sent 14,000 emails to large numbers of Ukrainian women between January and June 2010. Each of the women had received at least 10 emails or 100 instant messages. The prosecutor argued that this showed that Steele wanted new girlfriends, and had a motive to kill his wife.
Conviction and sentencing
On May 5, 2011, after extended deliberation, the jury of eleven women and one man found Steele guilty on all four counts described in the indictment. In an interview after the trial ended, Steele's wife gave a passionate and critical assessment of the prosecution, judge and case elements. Steele's sentencing hearing was held on November 9, 2011, in Coeur d'AleneCoeur d'Alene, Idaho
Coeur d'Alene is the largest city and county seat of Kootenai County, Idaho, United States. It is the principal city of the Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical Area. Coeur d'Alene has the second largest metropolitan area in the state of Idaho. As of the 2010 census the population of Coeur...
, Idaho. After making a statement in his own defense, he was sentenced to 50 years' imprisonment.