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$3 million bail set for Bertollini
Posted: Tuesday, Jun 06, 2006 - 09:04:47 am PDT
By KEITH KINNAIRD
News editor
SANDPOINT -- High bail has been imposed for Richard Vincent Bertollini, a former financier of the Aryan Nations who disappeared while awaiting trial on a felony drunken-driving charge.
"Mr. Bertollini, due to the length of the outstanding warrant, the state has requested -- and I have set -- your bail at $3 million," Judge Debra Heise told Bertollini during a brief hearing on Monday.
Bertollini is charged with two counts of bail jumping. One count is at the felony level and the other at the misdemeanor level, which corresponds with the severity of the charges he is accused of trying to flee.
Bertollini, 66, was charged with his third DUI and misdemeanor resisting arrest in January 2001. Bertollini accused the arresting officer of police brutality and pleaded innocent to the charges. Bertollini was acting as his own defense attorney as his case neared trial.
But Bertollini failed to show at a compulsory pre-trial hearing in July 2001 and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Bertollini, according to the FBI agents who tracked him, surfaced in the Southwest in the latter part of 2005.
He was arrested at a check-cashing business in Santa Fe, N.M., on April 12, ending a life on the run that lasted nearly six years.
At the time of his arrest, FBI officials said Bertollini's links to white separatist groups and causes made him an especially wanted fugitive.
Bertollini, who took part in Monday's hearing via video link from the Bonner County Jail, said little and politely answered Heise's routine questions.
"Yes, your honor," Bertollini said when Heise asked if he wanted the court to consider his application for a public defender.
On the application, Bertollini described himself as unemployed and listed Social Security as his only source of income. He wrote in the application that he had no assets and listed his last employer as the 11th Hour Remnant Messenger, an organization which blanketed the area in the late 1990s with mass mailings espousing racist beliefs.
Heise found that Bertollini qualified for a public defender and appointed one to represent him at future proceedings. On top of the $3 million bail on the bail-jumping charges, Heise imposed additional bail in the underlying case. Bertollini can either pay $25,000 cash or post a $250,000 surety bond to win his conditional release in the DUI and resisting case.
Bertollini requested a meeting with Prosecutor Phil Robinson. Heise said she would advise his counsel and Robinson of the request.
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Steve Faircloth
A Way Out Bail Bonds
(220) 204-9733 Cell
NSIN# SF0105
LIC. #704058
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