Full Thread: Edgar Steele
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Old June 24th, 2010 #366
Donald E. Pauly
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Las Vegas
Posts: 4,130
Angry Last Version of Steele Bail Hearing

This is the last major version of the story that needs to be posted.
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http://www.kxly.com/news/23988532/detail.html

Edgar Steele accuses government of "Mission Impossible Level Plot"
Erik Loney | KXLY4 Reporter
Posted: 6:24 am PDT June 22, 2010
Updated: 12:37 am PDT June 23, 2010

COEUR D'ALENE -- Recordings of two phone calls Edgar Steele made from the Kootenai County Jail show that the one-time attorney for the Aryan Nations claimed that the government was out to get him with a “Mission Impossible Level Plot.”

The recordings were played Tuesday morning at Steele’s detention hearing where he was arguing that he should be released from jail pending his trial on charges he hired a hit man to kill his wife and mother-in-law.
On Sunday night Steele made two phone calls from the Kootenai County Jail. The first call he made was to his son, followed afterward by a call to his wife Cyndi. In those calls Steele stated that the government is out to get him. He emphasized to them that “no matter what you hear or what you think you must not say that it’s my voice on the recordings.”
KXLY.COM VIDEO

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Edgar Steele accuses government of "Mission Impossible Level Plot"

June 22, 2010

Recordings of two phone calls Edgar Steele made from the Kootenai County Jail show that the one-time attorney for the Aryan Nations claimed that the government was out to get him with a "Mission Impossible Level Plot." KXLY4's Erik Loney reports.

At the beginning of each phone call a recording is played that lets prisoners know that all outgoing phone calls are monitored and recorded and anything said during a phone call can be used against them in court.

When he called his son he described it as the most important call he would ever make and then went on to tell his son that he had to tell his mom that the voice on the tape the government had of the hit man talking with Steele was not Steele’s voice. Steele explained to his son that the government was trying to turn Cyndi against Edgar and that the government had intentionally left a present for his Ukranian girlfriend out so that his wife would find it.
During his phone conversation with his wife Cyndi, Steele told his wife like he told his son that this was the most important call he’d ever made then proceeded to tell that "no matter what you hear, what you think, what you feel, you have to say the following: No that's not my husband's voice.”
Steele explained to his wife that “they are after me”, adding Cyndi that the attorney general is behind the “top level deal.”

“I guarantee it isn't me. I would never be so stupid to hire someone to kill you. I love you. Please, please, please my life is in your hands now. Like a rhinosaurus in the road, no matter how hard they push you, you have to do it,” Steele told his wife. Cyndi in return said very little during the conversation.

Steele was originally expected to be acting as his own attorney for the detention hearing but has received the assistance of a federal public defender, Roger Pevan, the same attorney who once served as legal counsel for Joseph Duncan.

At the conclusion of the hearing the judge ruled that Steele be held without bail because he had tried to obstruct the case against him and intimidate witnesses. During the phone conversation with his wife Steele told her, “You’ve got to do this otherwise you’ll have to explain how your testimony put me in prison.”

Federal prosecutors say Steele hired Larry Fairfax to kill his wife and mother-in-law and that Fairfax, who tipped off authorities to the plot, actually followed through with placing a pipe bomb under Cyndi Steele’s car. The bomb was discovered by employees of Coeur d’Alene’s Quick Lube late last week when she went in for an oil change.

Investigators say Fairfax told them he built two pipe bombs for Steele as part of a murder-for-hire plot. Fairfax originally tipped off authorities to the plot but only confessed to attaching the bomb to Cyndi's car after the bomb was found.

Fairfax appeared in court Monday for his detention hearing; a judge denied his request to be released from jail. His attorney claimed during the hearing that the bomb was built to not detonate and Fairfax was pretending to go along with the plot because he was fearful of Steele.

KXLY.com's Rob Kauder contributed to this report