Bill White to FBI: Publishing home addresses was a "joke"

By: Scott Leamon | WSLS
Published: December 15, 2009

6:35 p.m.

We heard from a pair of former tenants at a Virginia Beach apartment complex in the afternoon.

Prosecutors claim White threatened both women when he mailed them his American Nazi party magazine as well as a nasty letter in the summer of 2007.

The women were involved in a fair housing lawsuit against their landlord, a man White has never met.

Both women caught White's ire after the lawsuit filing.

White sent the letters to more than a dozen tenants at the complex. Only five were involved in the suit.

Since the lawsuit mentioned several of the tenants' children, White sent them his magazine and letter too.

Both women said they took the mailings as threatening.

One of the women said she packed up and left her apartment for five days after receiving the letter.

Both women also admitted the federal courts awarded them money as a result of the suit.

One received $27,000. The other $22,000.

Both women are also involved in a pending civil rights lawsuit against White.

Charles Tyson, the former mayor of South Harrison Township in New Jersey is expected to testify Tuesday.

Tyson is listed as one of the alleged victims in the indictment against White.

Tyson was the first black mayor in the town's history.

He resigned from the position last January, taking the deputy mayor position.

Tyson resigned from council entirely last month, citing racism.

Original post:

During a FBI raid on several of his properties in October 2008, Bill White told the lead investigators all of his writings in question were "political satire" and a "joke."

The lead investigator in the case, FBI special agent David Church, was among three witnesses to take the stand Monday morning.

Church said, while White made those admissions to him during an interview from his home on that October day, he still considered White's mailings to more than a dozen Virginia Beach apartment tenants and emails to Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts threatening.

A second FBI agent, Paul Messing, agreed.

As a computer analyst, Messing spent weeks going through White's stored computer hardware and software gathering potential evidence.

The trial has resumed after lunch.

Watch WSLS 10 On Your Side beginning at 5 p.m. for the very latest on the trial.