On July 1, 1998, Victoria and Jason Keenan, returning from a wedding, stopped briefly in front of the Aryan Nations compound to retrieve something that had fallen from their car. Something, possibly a firecracker, led a group of Aryan guards to believe they were under attack, and jumping into a pickup truck, they chased the Keenans down the road. The guards fired repeatedly at the Keenans, eventually shooting a tire and forcing them into a ditch. They were threatened and brutalized, but finally freed. Two of the perpetrators were tried and sentenced for their roles in the attack. A third guard remains a fugitive. In the aftermath of the criminal cases, the Keenans filed a civil suit. The case closely paralleled a normal personal injury trial. Jurors found, in effect, that Butler had hired untrained ex-convicts as guards; given them no training or formal policies to follow; allowed them to carry assault weapons; filled their heads with hatred; and set them loose on the community. The jury determined that Butler should have known that the actions of his security guards were a foreseeable result of his negligent and reckless supervision. This financial blow to Aryan Nations will mark the end of Butler's leadership and strike a serious blow at the network that has promulgated and acted on a theology that depicts whites as God's chosen people and Jews as the biological descendants of Satan.