$250,000 Bail Set in White Supremacist Case

A federal judge set a $250,000 bail Friday for alleged white supremacist Christian Gilbert Tony Nadal, rejecting prosecution arguments that the North Hills resident posed too great a danger to be allowed to leave custody while awaiting trail.

Nadal, 35, is charged as part of a 20-count indictment accusing him, his wife, Doris Nadal, and Acton resident Christopher James Berwick of illegal weapons manufacture and trafficking. All three were charged as the result of an 18-month federal investigation into Southern California white supremacists.

After Friday’s hearing, Nadal’s lawyer, Joel Levine, said he expects to argue that his client was improperly coaxed to sell the weapons by an overzealous FBI informant and undercover agent. Levine said Nadal had never sold weapons to anyone other than the undercover operatives and that they had initiated “99%” of the discussions involving weapons and racial violence.

“The questions are: Was he (Nadal) unlawfully induced to commit crimes, and is he a danger to the community?” Levine asked. “He’s not an active guy. He made statements.”

Prosecutors had argued that Nadal should not be allowed to post bail, citing numerous conversations--many of them recorded on audio or videotape--in which he allegedly discussed his support for waging a race war. According to prosecutors, Nadal sold 33 machine guns and four silencers to the FBI undercover agent and the informant, and did so because he believed the guns would be used by white supremacists furthering racial violence.

“I believe this defendant is firmly committed to the cause of a white holy war,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Gregory Jessner said. “The government feels very strongly that the defendant is an extreme danger to the community as well as a flight risk.”

But U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew questioned why investigators had allowed Nadal to remain at large for more than a year while they compiled evidence against him if he were such a threat to the community. Lew did agree that there was some risk that Nadal would flee. Nadal is a pilot who has been suspended from his job with Continental Airlines, but continues to own an airplane.

In announcing his bail order, Lew also required Nadal to turn over his passport and said that if he succeeds in posting bail, he is not to possess any firearms or to leave the Central District of California.

Nadal sat silently through most of Friday’s hearing, glancing back occasionally at his wife, who was among a few courtroom observers.

Lew’s $250,000 bail exceeded the amount recommended in a pretrial services report, and Levine said he did not yet know whether Nadal could post the $250,000 bail. Levine added that family members are contributing their property in an effort to help but said it would take several days to determine whether they could pool together enough property to post the bond.

Doris Nadal and Berwick are scheduled to appear in court Monday for their arraignment.

Six other suspects, including a Long Beach man accused of plotting to blow up the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, have been charged with various offenses related to the undercover FBI investigation. Those cases are not linked to the prosecution of the Nadals, however.