Bertollini says police beat him up

Backer of supremacist group arrested on suspicion of DUI

Spokane Spokesman Review/January 15, 2001
By Winston Ross

Vincent Bertollini says the Sandpoint police gave him a beating Friday night.

The backer of the white supremacist organization 11th Hour Remnant Messenger and ally of Richard Butler, leader of the Aryan Nations, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence Friday night.

Bertollini said via e-mail Sunday that he had pulled into his garage Friday night and three police cars pulled in behind him. He wrote in a third-person statement that "police followed him into the garage, threw him into the ground and pummeled him several times."

Representatives from the Sandpoint Police Department and Bonner County Sheriff's Department refused to comment on the incident Sunday.

Bertollini, who has been convicted of two drunken-driving charges in the past, wrote that officer Chris Bell called his name and "came at me in a menacing manner on my private property as I was entering my own garage." Bertollini said he feared Bell was "on a Rambo mission, as I have been harassed several times in the past couple of years."

Earlier that day, Bertollini said, he had had lunch with Butler and Carl Story, co-founder of the 11th Hour Remnant Messenger, at The Coeur d'Alene Resort.

"I suspected that word got out to intimidate me or otherwise hassle me," Bertollini wrote.

Bertollini said he plans to sue the Police Department for police brutality, use of excessive force, violation of civil rights, harassment and oppression.