News Roundup for July 15, 2011
An Illinois man who claimed to be a part of a militia sleeper cell has pleaded guilty to possession of illegal firearms and threatening his wife. Lowell Aughenbaugh, 48, had threatened to injure his wife, with whom he is in divorce proceedings. A search of the home of Aughenbaugh’s father revealed nearly 91 guns, including 15 classified as machine guns. Aughenbaugh is already under indictment for making a terrorist threat related to an ATF search of his business which prompted a 12-hour standoff with agents.
A New York woman was the victim of a hate crime according to Niagara Falls Police. Two women reportedly assaulted a woman of Pakistani origin while calling her ethnic and racial slurs. One woman has been arrested, while police are searching for the other.
The trial of a California man has revealed his possible links to white supremacists. Nicholas Klopp is on trial for allegedly punching a man after making derogatory slurs about gays at a birthday party for a man who is gay. Klopp then left in the truck of a friend who is a well-known white supremacist. Police also seized from the Klopp’s house white supremacist literature and music, pictures of Hitler, and skinhead T-shirts, which Klopp’s wife claims belonged to her deceased brother.
A convicted hate crime murderer received a life sentence for the unsolved killing of an acquaintance. Dale Mardis, 57, admitted to killing Henry Ackerman in 1998 with a hammer after an argument, and burning his body. Mardis is currently serving a life sentence for the 2001 killing of Mickey Wright, a Shelby County, Tenn., code enforcement officer, which was ruled a hate crime.
A routine traffic violation turned into a constitutional debate in a Tennessee courtroom. Joseph Augustine Dattilo Jr. was taken into custody because of an improper vehicle tag and lack of proper identification. Dattilo responded to the charges claiming that he has a $10 million bond that he used instead of car insurance, that the court did not have jurisdiction over him, and he was not required to have a valid driver’s license or registration, all claims common to the sovereign citizen movement. Datitilo only needs to pay $382.25 to clear the charges.
