CHICAGO, May 31 (UPI) -- A self-described Illinois white supremacist faces federal charges for allegedly setting fire to a black family's house in Joliet in 2007.
Brian James Moudry was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment handed up last week charging him with arson, setting a fire to drive the family from their home because of their race and using fire for another felony.
The family, who had eight children, moved after the fire. Moudry lived nearby in 2007.
One complication for prosecutors is that another man was charged in state court immediately after the fire. The charges were dropped in 2008 on the day the trial was scheduled to begin.
Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney, said the office would not comment on the case, calling it a "delicate situation."
Moudry, 35, has published a "Hatemonger Warzine" using the name "Rev. Brian 'Warhead von Jewgrinder' Moudry," the Sun-Times said. He described himself as a white supremacist since his late teens and said he had been influenced by growing up in the Marquette Park area of Chicago during race riots in the 1970s and 1980s.
He was sentenced to a short jail term and two years probation for a 1999 attack on two black men.
