Coronavirus Not Enough To Bond Out Alleged White Supremacists

ROME, GA — A judge decided Thursday that the threat of being infected in jail by the coronavirus wasn’t enough to justify bonding out three alleged white supremacists accused of plotting to murder a Bartow County couple.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the three men — Michael Helterbrand of Dalton, Jacob Kaderli of Dacula and Luke Lane of Silver Creek— were denied bond by Floyd County Superior Court Chief Judge Bryant Durham after a hearing conducted by video.

Floyd County Police allege that the three are members of “The Base,” a racially motivated, violent extremist group with "plans to overthrow the government and murder a Bartow County couple."

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The group was involved in recruiting new members online, meeting to discuss strategy and practicing in paramilitary training camps on a 100-acre tract in north Georgia.

The three men previously had been denied bond in February. They were jailed in January

Lane’s attorney argued that social distancing was impossible in the jail’s close quarters and described measures to spread coronavirus spread as “wholly inadequate.”

A spokesman for the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department said that the jail doesn’t have any cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. In addition, everybody in the jail — staff and detainees — is required to wear masks and gloves when moving around.

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