By Greg Grisolano
ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A McDonald County man, who authorities say has ties to violent white supremacists charged in an Arizona bombing, will be held without bond.
Robert N. Joos, of rural McDonald County, on Wednesday in Springfield was ordered to be held without bond on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
A spokesman for the U.S. district attorney’s office for Western Missouri said the office was pleased with the ruling.
“Basically our argument was that (Joos) is a danger to the community, and the court agreed,” said Don Ledford, public relations director for the office. “He’s a convicted felon who was found with firearms. He’s linked to violent white supremacists. There’s several reasons.”
Ledford said the next step would be for the case to go before a grand jury for an indictment. He said no schedule had been set for those proceedings.
Federal prosecutors say an undercover investigation found that people involved in the white-supremacist movement met for survival training at Joos’ property.
Chief Magistrate Judge James C. England said in his ruling that a search of Joos’ property in McDonald County uncovered more than a dozen firearms, blasting caps, gunpowder and fuses.
Joos was arrested as part of an investigation into a 2004 mail bombing in Scottsdale, Ariz., that injured the director of a diversity office. Prosecutors allege that the first call one of the suspects made after the bombing was to Joos.
Joos has a 1997 felony conviction for unlawful use of a weapon and a 2004 conviction for operating a motor vehicle without a valid license.
Joos at one point refused to obtain a driver license, saying during a court hearing in 2002 that it was against his religion, and that he could “make no covenant with the heathen government.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Church leader
Joos in 2004 led the Sacerdotal Church of David on a 200-acre farm near the community of Cyclone, between Powell and Pineville on Big Sugar Creek.
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