In Pasadena Courtroom, Government Appeals Dismissal of Charges vs. Accused White Supremacists

In Pasadena Tuesday,  prosecutors asked a federal panel at the Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court’s dismissal of criminal charges against two reputed members of a Southern California white supremacist organization suspected of inciting brawls at political rallies across the state.

At the hearing, an attorney for Robert Rundo and Robert Boman countered that a Santa Ana judge’s dismissal of the charges against the men in February should be affirmed.

It was the second time in five years that U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney had dismissed charges against members of the group. The judge rejected charges in the case in 2019, after Rundo’s attorneys argued that the Anti-Riot Act was “unconstitutionally over-broad.”

The three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals took the matter under submission, giving no indication when a ruling might be issued.

In his decision to dismiss the indictment, Carney agreed with the defense that Rundo and Boman were being selectively prosecuted, while members of antifa, a far-left extremist group that also attended the rallies, were not charged.

Carney wrote that while Rundo “espouses a hateful ideology” as a member of the organization, defendants in his case “were not the true threat to democracy at the rallies. Contrary to the government’s accusations, it was antifa … that posed the insidious threat to democracy.”

Carney determined that antifa activists, like Rundo’s group, “went to the rallies to shut them down by demeaning, pepper spraying, assaulting, and injuring the people in attendance.” But prosecutors focused on the white supremacist group and did not charge any of the left-wing activists, Carney said.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Robbins argued that Carney made “fundamental errors” in coming to his finding of selective prosecution because, among other things, the opposing groups were not similar enough to meet the required standard.

In her argument, federal public defender Caroline Platt said the antifa members were “doing the same thing” as Rundo and Bowman at the rallies, but only her clients were prosecuted. “This case is about viewpoint discrimination,” Platt told the panel.

In April, Carney sentenced white supremacist defendant Tyler Laube to 35 days behind bars, or time already served, for punching a journalist in the face during a clash between supporters of former President Donald Trump and opponents in Huntington Beach seven years ago.

The rallies involved in the case were May 25, 2017, at Bolsa Chica Beach in Huntington Beach, April 15, 2017, in Berkeley, and June 10, 2017, in San Bernardino.

“We are prosecuting individuals associated with a militant white- supremacy organization who are charged in a federal grand jury indictment with participating in attacks against innocent individuals who were engaging in Constitutionally protected free speech,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement in April.

“As federal prosecutors, we do everything we can to protect our community, and we do so ethically and in conformity with the Constitution. Indeed, we are sworn to uphold the Constitution, and all our actions are guided by this sacred oath. We fully believe that we have abided by these important principles in this matter.”