How much do you believe in coincidences? We'd say not enough to believe these two sets of arrests are not connected.

1. Three Texas inmates serving long sentences (two for capital murder) have been charged with plotting in 2001 to kill federal court Judge Richard P. Matsch--the Judge who presided over the McVeigh and Nichols trials in the Oklahoma City Bombing case. One of the inmates is charged with soliciting the other two.

2. Matt Hale, the leader of a White Supremacist organization, was arrested in Chicago Wednesday on charges that between Nov. 29 and Dec. 17, he tried to get someone to kill U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow. No details are available about who he allegedly tried to enlist.

Likewise, few details are available about the plot to kill Judge Matsch. We have practiced before Judge Matsch our entire career--rarely have we encountered a Judge who is as determined to provide a fair trial to the defense. He doesn't suffer fools and he sounds off equally at the Government and the Defense. We've served on several committees at his request, and have a tremendous amount of respect for him. We are shocked and angry at the allegations. But we are also keeping in mind that charges are not evidence, and it would be wrong to presume that those charged are guilty.

Judge Matsch was the Chief Judge of the District of Colorado until just a few years ago, when age laws required him to leave that position. He continued to preside over trials as a district court judge, working every day nothwithstanding that he was waiting for a liver transplant (not due to any alchohol related condition.) He got the transplant, returned to work, and just recently took senior status.

In 1987, Judge Matsch presided over another high-profile case with white supremacist defendants--one that involved the murder of Denver radio host Alan Berg. The defendants were convicted. One of them, David Lane, was sentenced to 150 years.

We have no information to connect the cases of Hale and the Texas inmates. Nor are we implying a connection between either of these two cases and the Alan Berg case, but like we said, we don't much believe in coincidences--particularly when law enforcement swoops down in different parts of the country in the same day and charges unrelated people with similar crimes. On the other hand, we could just be a little paranoid.