Published: May 24, 2008 09:07 pm      

Police say financial documents may show more evidence of illegality by House of Israel’s Fox

By Kelly Young

kyoung@jacksonvilleprogress.com

After executing a search warrant and four arrest warrants at the House of Israel Thursday morning resulting in the arrest of Robert Fox, the detectives of the Jacksonville Police Department spent most of their day examining the interior of the building and its two associated trailers.

According to Detective Daniel Franklin, several items of interest were taken into evidence as a consequence of the raid — including documents which may lead to additional charges being filed.

“Along with other things, we were able to locate several boxes of documents showing financial profits coming in to Robert Fox and since he told us that he doesn’t have a job, we are very interested in determining where all that money is coming from,” Franklin said. “We will probably be contacting the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) for assistance in this case. We are working now on determining where all the money is coming from.”

JPD would not disclose the amount of money involved, but did reveal that Fox had close to $2,000 on his person at the time of his arrest.

In addition to the financial statements which they believe will lead them to evidence of more criminal activities, police investigators also located a large stash of anti-government propaganda, pornography and bladed weapons like knives and swords.

“We found bookshelf after bookshelf of anti-government materials; possibly hundreds or thousands of pieces of literature and video tapes. We also located numerous videos and books related to Timothy McVeigh, and it appears as though they were being used as research material,” Franklin said. “We didn’t find anything that leads us to believe they were trying to plan anything like [McVeigh] did, but they appear to have been looking into the way he did things.”

According to Franklin, more than 15 pornographic videos and 30 magazines were found in dressers and desk drawers around the building.

“It’s not illegal to possess porn, and it’s not uncommon for us to locate that kind of stuff when we run a search warrant on a residence that is suspected of illegal activity, but it is uncommon to find that type of stuff in a location that is claiming to be a Christian-based organization,” he said. “We also took into custody several swords and knives, which we were a little concerned about because they were all kept in nightstands or right beside beds, which would have made them handy to use in an aggressive manner.”

Fox was arrested on three counts of possession of dangerous drugs and one count of possession of a controlled substance. Those substances, all prescription medications, were found and confiscated during a raid of the House of Israel on May 15. Franklin said a large supply of additional drugs were found inside the building during Thursday’s raid.

“He has been arraigned, and his bond has been set at $60,000 — $15,000 for each charge. All of the charges are class-A misdemeanors, which carry a monetary fine not to exceed $4,000, confinement in jail for a term not to exceed one year, or both,” Franklin said.

A box of ammunition for a Russian SKS rifle was also found, but no actual firearms were located on the premises.

Franklin said more criminal charges are expected, but he could not offer a timeline on when.

“We took numerous boxes of paperwork and files out of the building, and we are now going to have to go through it all. We are going to take our time on this because we have a lot of evidence to go through, and we don’t want to miss anything important,” he said.