BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - A federal judge this afternoon denied bond for a Talladega County man, arrested Aug. 25 and charged with trying to hire the Ku Klux Klan to kill a black neighbor. He thought he had contacted a Klansman but was actually talking to an undercover FBI employee.

U.S. Magistrate T. Michael Putnam denied bond for Allen Wayne "Big Dad" Morgan, 29, of Munford, following a nearly 45-minute hearing this afternoon at the Hugo L. Black U.S. Courthouse in Birmingham.

A federal prosecutor argued Morgan, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and whose struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder has been public, was a danger to the community. Morgan's defense attorney from the Federal Public Defender's Office, however, argued that he could be released under bond with conditions including home detention and under third party custody.

"We understand, but are disappointed in the court's ruling," assistant public defender Glennon Threatt said after the hearing. "We believe there were conditions that would have protected the community and assured his (Morgan's) appearance in court."

"Never the less, we will zealously defend Mr. Morgan and would ask that people not pre-judge Mr. Morgan or this case based on the nature of the government's allegations," Threatt said.

Several women in the audience, identified as members of Morgan's family, declined comment after the hearing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat Meadows declined comment after the hearing.

A special agent who had filed the affidavit with the complaint testified and an audio tape of Morgan trying to arrange the killing was played.

On Aug. 22 an FBI undercover employee posing as a member of the KKK contacted Morgan to verify that he wanted to hire someone to kill a neighbor, Clifford Maurice Mosley, a man Morgan believe had raped his wife days earlier, according to the affidavit.

Morgan told the undercover FBI employee that he had just confronted Mosley with a semi-automatic pistol and fired several shots but was not trying to kill Mosley because others were present. Authorities do not believe a rape occurred and Mosley was not charged.

Morgan spelled out in detail how he wanted Mosley to die a slow and painful death, according to the affidavit.

"I want this man hung from a tree like he is an animal. I want his (expletive) cut off and I want him cut. You're a hunting man right?" Morgan told the undercover FBI employee posing as the KKK hit man. "I want him hung from a tree and gutted."

The undercover FBI employee set up a time and place to meet Morgan on Aug. 25 at a hotel in Oxford, at which time he gave the undercover a watch and necklace and a promise to give him a gun as payment. Morgan was arrested at the end of that meeting.

A psychiatric report was filed in the case on Aug. 30. But that report is sealed and not available for public view. His defense attorneys said today that Morgan's mental health has stabilized and he is doing well.