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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Racists Spark Fear|in Texas Prosecutors

HOUSTON (CN) - A federal prosecutor in Houston withdrew from a racketeering case against the Aryan Brotherhood, apparently from fears induced by the killings of a Dallas-area district attorney and an assistant prosecutor, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hileman had been assigned to prosecute 34 members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas on RICO charges, including murder, kidnapping, arson and meth dealing, reporter James Pinkerton wrote in the Tuesday edition of the Chronicle.

The U.S. Attorney's Office unsealed the indictment last November.

Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife were murdered in their home last weekend. Assistant prosecutor Mark Hasse was shot to death in January while going to the Kaufman County Courthouse. Hasse was murdered the same day two members of the white racist gang were sentenced to prison in Texas.

The McLelland murders last weekend led to beefed up security for several Texas prosecutors, including Harris County District Attorney Mike Anderson, according to the Chronicle.

A Houston defense attorney told the Chronicle that Hileman was no longer prosecuting the racist gang.

"I'd say it's not a regular thing," the attorney, who represents an alleged Aryan gang ringleader, told the newspaper. "You know people get transferred and moved around the (prosecutor's) office, so people get moved on and off cases. But I would say this situation is probably a little bit different from all of those."

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