December 3, 2001, Indiana. American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan leader Jeff Berry receives a seven year prison sentence after pleading guilty in October to conspiracy to commit criminal confinement with a deadly weapon. Berry had been arrested for holding two local television reporters hostage until they relinquished a videotape of an interview with him (see above, October 1). The reporters won a $120,000 civil judgment against Berry in a separate case.

December 4, 2001, Nebraska. A judge drops charges against neo-Nazi Gary Lauck, who had been arrested for failing to reveal in a handgun permit application that he had been convicted in Germany in 1996 for inciting racial hatred. Because there was no gun prohibition in the German law under which Lauck was convicted, the judge in Lauck's case ruled that there was no case against him. Lauck had spent four years in prison in Germany.

December 4, 2001, Ohio. Tax protester and anti-government activist Katina Kefalos is convicted in Columbus of one count of tax evasion. Kefalos had been charged with evading nearly $13,000 in federal income taxes during the years 1990-1992. She acted as her own attorney during the trial, using tactics derived from a popular sovereign citizen strategy known as "redemption," in which she demanded to know from every prosecution witness whether they had a "claim" against her.

December 4, 2001, Louisiana, South Carolina. Carl Ervin Batts, a tax protester from Goose Creek, South Carolina, is convicted in federal court in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on five counts of mail fraud. The jury, however, fails to reach a decision on twelve other charges. Batts had been arrested for taking in thousands of dollars from African-Americans by claiming he could help them get millions of dollars in reparations for being descended from slaves. Batts told people that the federal government had a trust fund from which people could get money for purchasing luxury homes and vehicles, and that because the 16th Amendment had never been ratified, they could claim all the income tax they had previously paid. The jury convicts Batts of mailing false documents, but does not reach a verdict on charges of filing false tax claims.

December 5, 2001, Ohio, Illinois. Fugitive Clayton Lee Waagner, who escaped from an Illinois prison in February, is caught at a photocopy service store in suburban Cincinnati. During his time as a fugitive, the anti-abortion extremist allegedly robbed banks, stole cars, and sent hundreds of anthrax threat letters to abortion providers. Waagner told a newspaper that he had threatened to kill abortion doctors, but changed his mind after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Waagner faces up to life in prison on a number of different charges.

December 5, 2001, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia area residents Dale Smith and Keith Carney are arrested for allegedly placing white supremacist stickers on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Philadelphia. The two, members of the neo-Nazi National Alliance, are charged with institutional vandalism, desecration of objects, criminal mischief, ethnic intimidation, and other crimes.

December 7, 2001, Texas. A federal judge sentences six members of the sovereign citizen separatist group called the Republic of Texas to federal prison for firearms violation in connection with the group's 1997 armed standoff with law enforcement near Ft. Davis, Texas. Richard McLaren, the group's leader, receives a ten year sentence, with three years' supervised release, while four followers-Robert "White Eagle" Otto, Robert Scheidt, Gregg Paulson, and Richard Keyes III-receive five year sentences, with three years of supervised release. A sixth member, Karen Paulson, receives a sentence of 50 months in prison and two years of supervised release.

December 11, 2001, Connecticut. Charles Cornelius of New Haven is charged with four counts of illegal possession of an assault weapon after police find a cache of weapons and hate literature from the World Church of the Creator at his parents' home, where he lives. Police reveal that they found several AR-15 assault weapons, a shotgun, 25 hand grenades, 300 pounds of ammonium nitrate, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. According to police, Cornelius also used the identity of a dead Pennsylvania resident to buy an illegal sniper rifle.

December 11, 2001, Michigan. A federal jury convicts twelve Michigan residents in Grand Rapids on a variety of charges relating to the sovereign citizen "redemption" tactic. "Redemption" is a complicated scheme in which anti-government activists create bogus check-like instruments called "sight drafts" to pay off debts or purchase goods. According to prosecutors, the Michigan group created bogus sight drafts with a face value of more than $550 million. In addition, the defendants used another "redemption" tactic: filing bogus IRS forms to retaliate against judges, law enforcement officials, or others with whom they are at odds. The Michigan redeemers filed at least 113 such forms. Convicted are Joan Anderson, Art Modderman, Phillip Hammond, Rodger Yates, Dewey Metcalf, Sr., Dewey Metcalf, Jr., Frank Sagorski, Brian Carney, Susan Sloboda, Jack Shriver, and Robert Goodwin, Jr.

December 12, 2001, California. Police arrest two members of the extremist Jewish Defense League in Los Angeles, including group leader Irv Rubin, for allegedly plotting bombings against an area synagogue and an Arab-American Congressman. The second JDL member arrested is Earl Krugel; both Rubin and Krugel live in Los Angeles. Irvin, who has claimed to have been arrested more than 40 times, is most known for high-profile confrontations with white supremacists.

December 12, 2001, New York. White supremacist Ryan Wagner is convicted on two counts of attempted murder and assault for trying to kill two Mexican laborers in a racially motivated attack on Long Island. Wagner faces up to 50 years in prison. Another defendant, Christopher Slavin, had previously been convicted on identical charges and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison (see above, October 4).

December 13, 2001, Florida. Greater Ministries International member Paul F. Bennett receives a one year prison sentence for a securities fraud scheme that cheated Polk County investors out of nearly $300,000 (see above, August 6). Bennett was a financial adviser for GMI, a church run by anti-government activists that operated a large multimillion pyramid investment scheme. Five GMI leaders are currently serving federal prison terms for their role in that scheme, which was unrelated to Bennett's separate securities fraud scam.

December 14, 2001, Washington. Donald Bruce McAninch, a white supremacist from Sammamish, Washington, is charged with threatened use of weapons of mass destruction, as well as mail theft and mail fraud charges, for what authorities describe as a hate campaign against minorities and mixed race couples. Among other actions, McAninch allegedly sent a letter with a whitish powder to the vice president of a Seattle-based real estate company. McAninch has previously been convicted, and spent time in prison, for sending death threats to then-President George Bush and for conducting a mail fraud scheme aimed at minorities and civil rights sympathizers.

December 14, 2001, Oregon, California. A Multnomah County grand jury returns indictments against five skinheads in connection with the beating of an 18-year old woman in November. The charges range from first degree assault to second degree kidnapping. According to reports, she was beaten because she refused to take part in an assault on an anti-racist skinhead. Indicted are Gary Carson Brown, Sheila McKenzie, and James Torkelson of Portland, and Pamela Bailey and Dimitri Tash of Los Angeles.

December 15, 2001, Maryland. A pipe bomb explodes while being handled by Robert Joseph Lockman of Dundalk; Lockman is taken to the hospital and later charged with first-degree arson and manufacturing a hazardous device. According to Lockman's neighbors, he is a racist skinhead with several swastika tattoos.

December 24, 2001, California. Riverside resident Robert Clyde is arrested on charges of making terrorist threats, battery, and a hate crime, following an incident in which Clyde allegedly screamed racial slurs at a black man and then attacked him. Clyde told police that he was a member of the white supremacist American Front skinheads.

December 26, 2001, Louisiana. Two Baton Rouge area Klansmen are arrested by local police and federal agents at a mobile home they were searching for a fugitive Klansman, Scott Ayers, whom police believe faked his death to avoid arrest for writing bad checks. Arrested are Forrest Broussard, on two counts of manufacture or possession of a bomb, one count of possession of marijuana, and one count of illegal possession of a firearm with a controlled dangerous substance; and John Wall, on one count of issuing worthless checks. The three were members of the Circle Six Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.