CHICAGO -- A neo-Nazi and Internet bully who picked on victims from Roanoke to Chicago will remain here, held without bond, until his trial next year on charges of encouraging violence against a juror.

William A. White, the head of a Roanoke-based white supremacy organization, has a long history of posting racially charged material to his Web site, federal Judge William Hibbler said in denying White's request for bond.

Hibbler based his concerns not so much on what White might do if released but on what one of his followers might do at his urging.

"Unfortunately, there are so many people who are susceptible to suggestions that come from other sources," Hibbler said.

At his bond hearing in U.S. District Court in Chicago, White found himself in the awkward position of seeking leniency from a black judge in the hometown of one of his targets, president-elect Barack Obama.

Although Hibbler made no direct comment about White's racist views, defense attorneys argued that any distaste for white supremacists should not interfere with his freedom of expression.

"I don't agree with his opinions," attorney Nishay Sanan told the judge. "I'm assuming you don't agree with his opinions. ... But he's entitled to those opinions."

Wearing a blaze-orange jail jumpsuit, White sat calmly through the hearing. He did not testify.

He has been in custody since Oct. 17, when federal agents in Roanoke arrested him on a charge of encouraging violence against the foreman of a Chicago jury that convicted Matthew Hale, a fellow white supremacist, in 2004.

Sanan said the only reason federal agents arrested White was to get him off the streets before the presidential election.

At the time of his Oct. 17 arrest, White was preparing to go to print with a magazine that pictured Obama, his head encircled by the cross hairs of a rifle formed in the shape of a swastika.

With the image was the headline "Kill This N-----?"

Although "the headline was catchy," the accompanying article made no direct threats against Obama, Sanan said.

Federal prosecutors never said directly that White poses a danger to Obama, whose presidential transition office is located just across the street from the federal courthouse where the hearing was held.

But in asking that White be held without bond, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Ferrara pointed to the article's final paragraph: If Obama were to become the first black elected president, it stated, he should not be allowed, "by any means necessary," to take office.

Authorities are arguing that the magazine for White's group, the American National Socialist Workers Party -- and, to an even greater degree, his Web site -- are ways for him to advocate violence against those who offend his racist beliefs.

But a forensic psychiatrist who examined White testified Friday that he does not pose a threat. The 31-year-old's inflammatory online postings were just a way for him to vent frustration, according to Dr. James Corcoran.

In May, when White hinted online that he was capable of mass murder, he was depressed about the illness of his wife and their newborn daughter, he told the psychiatrist.

But as Hibbler pointed out in his decision, White was making disturbing posts long before those events.

An evaluation of White found no signs of major mental illness. But he does have a personality disorder, Corcoran said.

White's personality has both histrionic and narcissistic features -- often evident from his blog postings, which go on at great length about himself and his controversial, but self-described, roles in high-profile current events.

Federal authorities allege that White posted the Hale juror's home address and telephone numbers on his Web site, putting the man at risk from an Internet audience known for racist views and, in some cases, violence.

Although he made no direct threats to the juror, White wrote that the man had played a key role in what he called the wrongful conviction of Hale, who is serving a 40-year prison term. The jury convicted Hale of soliciting the murder of a federal judge who ruled against him in a trademark infringement case involving the name of his organization, the World Church of the Creator.

Friday's hearing was White's second attempt to make bond.

At an earlier hearing in federal court in Roanoke, magistrate Judge Michael Urbanski found White to be a risk to the community, basing his decision largely on White's own words. In postings to his Web site, White had rambled about his urge to "kill, kill, kill" -- writing at one point that he had developed an intricate plot to murder "about a score of Roanoke's Negro nuisances and their annoying counterparts at The Roanoke Times."

Following Urbanski's decision to hold White without bond, he was transferred to Chicago.

White will remain in the Metropolitan Correction Center, where he is being held in solitary confinement for his own protection, co-counsel Chris Shepherd said.

His trial, set to begin March 3, will focus heavily on whether his actions crossed the line between free speech and illegal threats.

"This is a politically motivated case," Sanan said, "with a lot of First Amendment ramifications."