Saturday, May 08, 1999
Supremacist refuses to testify
Oregonia man declines to talk of alleged plot
BY SHEILA McLAUGHLIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
After a last-minute meeting with the judge, white supremacist Kale Kelly rescinded an agreement to testify against others in an alleged plot to stockpile arms and overthrow the government.
Even so, Mr. Kelly, 38, of Oregonia, pleaded guilty Friday to a single charge of possession of firearms by a convicted felon.
The plea came minutes after Mr. Kelly told the Enquirer: “I will not cooperate. I will not cooperate.”
Mr. Kelly, who is being held without bond at the Hamilton County Justice Center, now faces up to 10 years in the federal penitentiary. He will be sentenced July 30.
Neither defense lawyer Richard Smith-Monahan nor assistant U.S. Attorney Ralph W. Kohnen would explain Mr. Kelly's change of heart. Mr. Kelly was not available for comment; he was taken back to jail immediately.
“A plea agreement is not a plea agreement until he stands up and says it in court,” Mr. Smith-Monahan said.
“All I can say is, it was brought to our attention that paragraphs 2 to 4 were no longer acceptable,” said Mr. Kohnen.
Mr. Kelly had signed an agree ment with prosecutors on Tuesday, promising to provide information and act as a witness in court and before a federal grand jury involving the weapons scheme or other criminal offenses involving others.
In exchange, the U.S. Attorney's Office offered him immunity from further prosecution in Ohio involving the weapons scheme.
According to an amended agreement signed in court Friday, Mr. Kelly will receive immunity and prosecutors will recommend a reduced sentence on the weapons charge in exchange for the plea.
Mr. Kelly, who attended the Aryan Nation's Church of Jesus Christ Christian in Clinton County, had been under federal surveillance since 1997.
He was was arrested at a Clearcreek Township construction site April 14, just hours before federal agents raided the barn where Mr. Kelly and his girlfriend lived, in search of guns.
According to federal documents, agents with the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) allege that Mr. Kelly was involved in a scheme to overthrow the government.
An informant told federal agents Mr. Kelly met with Ku Klux Klan members in Greenville, Ky., in March to gather guns and PVC pipes used to bury firearms and contraband.
Federal agents also observed Mr. Kelly with people buying guns at Caesar Creek Flea Market in Clinton County, and meeting in western Kentucky with Ronald Edwards, the grand dragon of the Knights of the KKK.
Agents from the FBI and ATF raided Mr. Edwards' compound in Greenville at the same time they staged a raid on Mr. Kelly's residence. The following week, Mr. Edwards, several of his followers and Mr. Kelly's girlfriend, Debbie Baker, were subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in Louisville.
Mr. Kohnen would not comment on Mr. Kelly's connection to those grand jury proceedings.
However, Mrs. Baker said Friday that she was questioned because of her association with Mr. Kelly and her upbringing in the KKK.
“They asked about bombs and weapons and wanted to know if we were going to overthrow the government,” Mrs. Baker said.
“It's baloney. The feds screwed up. They got misinformation. They spend all the damn money and the only thing they have, because of their misinformation, is a weapons charge.”
Federal agents charged Mr. Kelly with possessing two loaded semi-automatic guns, which were found in his bedroom during the raid.
As a convicted felon, Mr. Kelly was not allowed to have firearms. He was released from an Ohio prison in April 1998 after a sentence on a concealed weapons charge in Clinton County.
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