澳彩开奖

Benjamin Drake Daley, 26, from Redondo Beach, California, is the fourth member of the organization to reach a deal with federal prosecutors. He had been charged聽with conspiracy to violate federal rioting laws and one count each of violating the federal rioting law.

A second RAM member, Michael Paul Miselis, a 30-year-old Lawndale, California, resident, also pleaded guilty Friday morning to a charge of conspiracy to riot.

The other two RAM members, Thomas Walter Gillen, 34, of Redondo Beach, California, and Cole Evan White, 24, of Clayton, California, are each awaiting sentencing. Gillen, Miselis and Daley are scheduled for sentencing July 19, while White鈥檚 sentencing date has not been set.

鈥淭hese avowed white supremacists traveled to Charlottesville to incite and commit acts of violence, not to engage in peaceful First Amendment expression,鈥� . 鈥淎lthough the First Amendment protects an organization鈥檚 right to express abhorrent political views, it does not authorize senseless violence in furtherance of a political agenda.鈥�

The charges stem from violence during 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� and the infamous 鈥渢iki-torch鈥� march聽through the lawn at the University of Virginia toward the university鈥檚 rotunda and the iconic statue of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence as well as the founder of the university. During the Aug. 11, 2017, march demonstrators chanted 鈥淏lood and Soil!鈥� and 鈥淛ews will not replace us!鈥�

The Rise Above Movement, an 澳彩开奖-designated white nationalist hate group, is made up of hardcore white supremacists who are influenced by white nationalist-inspired Identitarian philosophy聽and the European circuit of racist, neo-Nazi MMA promotions, clothing brands and football hooliganism.

The group organizes and trains primarily to engage in fighting and violence at political rallies.

The FBI said in a criminal complaint that it identified Daley, Gillen, Miselis and White in social media pictures and videos as taking part in the torch-lit march and in social media conversations as having admitted to hitting bystanders.

鈥淲e had them completely surrounded,鈥� Daley is quoted as telling someone on social media. 鈥淚 hit like 5 people.鈥�

The FBI also detailed in the complaint how it used social media videos to identify Daley and unidentified others taking part in punching, beating and headbutting counterprotesters on Second Street NE in downtown Charlottesville.

The FBI claims that after arriving in Charlottesville on Aug. 11, 2017, Daley went to Walmart and bought white athletic tape, black spray paint and a folding tactical knife.

In their plea agreements, the RAM members admitted to taking part in riots in Berkeley, California, on April 15, 2017, then traveling to Charlottesville in August to 鈥淯nite the Right,鈥� where they planned to attack people.

鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be like Berkeley again,鈥� Daley is quoted in a plea agreement as telling White. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be the event of the year.鈥�

Prosecution victories

Daley鈥檚 plea is the latest in a string of legal victories for prosecutors and plaintiff鈥檚 attorneys pursuing cases after 鈥淯nite the Right.鈥�

Federal prosecutors secured the guilty plea聽in March of 21-year-old James Alex Fields Jr., on 29 hate crimes charges. Fields admitted to driving his 2010 Dodge Challenger into a crowd of counterprotesters after 鈥淯nite the Right.鈥�

That came three months after a state court jury convicted Fields of first-degree murder and multiple counts of malicious wounding for the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer聽in the same incident.

Fields is scheduled for separate sentencing hearings in both cases in July.

State prosecutors also convicted four people of attacking and beating Charlottesville resident DeAndre Harris in a parking garage in the hours after 鈥淯nite the Right.鈥�

Jacob Scott Goodwin, a neo-Nazi sympathizer from Ward, Arkansas; Alex Michael Ramos, a onetime member of a militia group called the Georgia Security Force III% from Jackson, Georgia; 20-year-old Daniel Patrick Borden of Mason, Ohio; and League of the South member Tyler Watkins Davis of Middleburg, Florida, are all behind bars.

Goodwin, Ramos and Borden were sentenced to state prison time. Davis is scheduled for sentencing August 27.

The City of Charlottesville also sued聽many of the groups and people who took part in 鈥淯nite the Right,鈥� reaching settlements with many that keep them from returning to the city of 48,000 to hold armed protests.

In a plea agreement reached in July 2018, neo-Nazi Christopher Cantwell, who runs the 鈥淩adical Agenda鈥� podcast, admitted to shooting pepper spray on two people during the 鈥渢iki-torch鈥� march at the University of Virginia on Aug. 11, 2017. As part of the deal, Cantwell is 聽until 2023.

Other cases

The founder of the Rise Above Movement, Robert Rundo, a 28-year-old Huntington Beach, California resident, and two other members of the group face a federal criminal trial July 9 in Los Angeles on charges of conspiracy to riot and aiding and abetting the conspiracy.

A fourth member of the California group, Tyler Laube, pleaded guilty in November 2018 to conspiracy. Laube is awaiting a sentencing date.

That case revolves around a series of violent attacks聽at rallies in Huntington Beach, Berkeley and San Bernardino, California, in 2017.

鈥淓very American has the right to peacefully organize, march and protest in support of their beliefs 鈥� but no one has the right to violently assault their political opponents,鈥� U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement after the indictment on Oct. 29, 2018.

Photo credit: Edu Bayer