Dressed in the standard black and white prison stripes and girded in shackles, Kevin Alfred Strom strode into the U.S. District courtroom with a beatific smile, and then noticed an elderly couple amid the 10 or 15 people in the audience. “Thanks for coming,” he said to them. “I love you. Tell the kids I’m staying strong.” He then took a seat as U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon strolled in to consider the arguments before him.
Strom—a well-known white supremacist and leader of the National Vanguard—was arrested in January of this year and initially charged with two counts of possession of child porn and witness tampering. In April, the prosecution brought forward more charges, including a count of child solicitation.
At the May 30 hearing, prosecutors revealed that they will soon be adding more charges as the result of new evidence gained from a computer hard-drive. In a motion to sever the new evidence from the current case, Strom’s attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Andrea Harris, disputed whether the images seized from the computer are of children under the age of 18. “There is no evidence that the images referenced in the superseding indictment from the 40 GB depict minors, and other evidence indicates that those images in fact depict adults,” reads the motion filed by Harris.
The motion also took issue with the government’s contention that Strom solicited a minor identified only as “A.A.” Strom sent gifts to A.A. and pictures of A.A. were found on one of Strom’s computers. Harris explained that A.A. was a friend of one of his children. Strom also allegedly sent A.A. a sonnet. “There is not a shred of evidence that such ‘sonnet’ was ever conveyed in any way, shape or form to anyone, much less to A.A.,” the motion states.
As the trial was originally scheduled for late June, Harris requested a delay to view some of the new evidence, which includes videotape interviews of two minors. Deferring a decision on the motion to sever, Judge Moon indicated he is likely to grant the delay. The new trial date would likely be set no sooner than the fall.
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