COEUR d'ALENE - The Athol Aryan Nations member planning to create a new headquarters in Oregon has served prison time in two states, according to a press release by the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations on Wednesday.

The task force distributed an article by the Blue Mountain Eagle in John Day, Ore., revealing that Paul Mullet has had several felony convictions for theft and burglary.

Task Force spokesman Tony Stewart identified this as an example of how racist hate groups have a history of convicted felons as members.

"Over and over again we have seen attempts by these felons to move to the Northwest and create an atmosphere of hate," Stewart wrote in the release.

According to the Eagle article printed on Wednesday, Mullet pleaded guilty to four counts of felony theft in April 1993 in Ohio for incidents involving passing bad checks.

He was sent to prison in Ohio from December 1993 through July 1995.

Mullet was back in prison for a year in 2002, this time in Minnesota, for two felony cases, one a theft in 1999 and the other a business burglary in 2000.

In the 1999 case, Mullet stole $2,000 from a gas station store in St. Paul where he had been fired. Mullet entered the store and sent the other workers home, according to the article, then stole the money, as well as cigarettes and lottery tickets.

The other Minnesota case involved Mullet breaking into a business in Roseville, where he was also fired, and stealing payroll checks.

Mullet was also convicted in 2004 in Ramsey County, Minn., for an incident where he issued a dishonored check and another offering a forged check. He was sentenced to 13 months in the Ramsey County Workhouse, and five years supervised probation.

Officials say Mullet is still wanted on warrants dating back to 2004 in three Minnesota counties. Ramsey County lists him on two warrants for probation violation, and Washington County officials said there is a warrant for him for failure to appear on a charge of issuing a worthless check. Polk County also has a warrant for him for failure to appear on a theft by check charge.

Mullet said in an e-mail to the Eagle that he was getting paperwork to show all the charges were taken care of.

Mullet did not return phone calls from The Press.

The Eagle article pointed out that the criminal background diverges from Mullet's statements when he was scoping out locations for a new headquarters in John Day in mid February.

During that visit, he assured that Aryans Nations followers are "very law-abiding."

Mullet had called himself the national director of the supremacist group and said the rural community was ideal for the group and its 2011 national gathering, despite the protesters who greeted him.

Stewart said the Task Force will continue to support Grant County, Ore., in all its efforts to promote human rights.

"We reject both the hate-filled doctrines of the Aryan Nations as well as any criminal activities that it may become involved with in the future," he wrote in the press release.