WEBVTT - Burning Objects 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:04.920 Cool Zone Media. 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:07.720 Hello, and welcome back to It could happen here. I 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:10.639 am once again your guest host, Molly Conger, and today 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:13.760 I'm going to tell you about something that is happening 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:18.840 here here being my hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia. You might 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:21.560 have seen the news recently that Patriot Front leader Thomas 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:24.000 Ryan Russo was arrested in Texas on an out of 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:28.560 state felony warrant. On February twenty third, authorities in McLennan County, Texas, 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:32.000 arrested Rousseau and booked him into the county jail. The 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:36.160 jail roster lists the offense as burn object to intimidate 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:40.720 OH slash s that OS means out of state, and 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:43.960 it lists Virginia as the state issuing the warrant. And 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.879 Rousseau's arrest certainly made a splash when the news hit. 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:50.000 Nazi telegram channels lit up with posts about his arrest. 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:53.760 Gab feeds were flooded with hastily made graphics decrying this 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:57.960 political persecution. This sudden spike and interest in a little 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.240 used Virginia Code section might make you think Russeau was 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:03.320 the first person to be taken into custody on this 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.760 charge that perhaps he was targeted for arrest in some 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:09.240 kind of grand political plan to take him out of 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:13.400 the game. But he is in fact the eleventh person 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:16.520 to be arrested in just the last year for participating 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.080 in the Tiki Torch march at the University of Virginia 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:23.320 on August eleventh, twenty seventeen. These cases have been working 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:25.479 their way through the system here for long enough that 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.000 some of Russeau's Code defendants have not only already been 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:31.319 found guilty, they've served their time and gotten back out. 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:34.520 But with this sudden surge and interest in this case, 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:36.560 I want to give you all a little background on 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:39.920 the other ten. If you'll indulge me for a moment, though, 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:41.920 I'd like to read you something I wrote nearly a 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:45.399 year ago, just as the first cases were being unsealed. 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.480 There is no statute of limitations on felonies in Virginia. 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.760 With that in mind, here's section eighteen point two Dash 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:57.480 four twenty three point oh one Dash B of the 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:01.680 Code of Virginia. Burning objects on property of another or 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:05.000 a highway or other public place with intent to intimidate 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:08.760 any person who with the intent of intimidating any person 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:11.400 or group of persons burns an object on a highway 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.120 or other public place in a manner having a direct 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:17.279 tendency to place another person in reasonable fear or apprehension 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.560 of death or bodily injury is guilty of a Class 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:25.720 six felony. On August eleventh, twenty seventeen, hundreds of torch 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:28.800 bearing marchers traversed the grounds of the University of Virginia. 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:32.760 They'd come to Charlottesville from across the country, taking Friday 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:35.240 morning flights or taking turns at the wheel for cross 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:37.600 country drives, and rented vans with guys they met on 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:41.760 message boards. Arriving early before the big event. The following morning, 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:45.400 they gathered at Nameless Field, a grassy acre near the 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:49.520 Via tennis courts with a deceptive name, and distributed tiki torches. 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:52.680 Men with walkie talkies clipped to their belts, some with 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:57.200 wired earpieces, barked orders. Elliott Kleine, an ambitious young white 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:00.919 nationalist organizer calling himself Eli Moseley to the twentieth century 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:04.560 British fascist Oswald Mosley, shouted at the crowd as they 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:08.400 formed into a line or picking big guys, no females. 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:11.880 Klein and his security team would be selecting the biggest 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:14.480 marshers to lay down their torches and keep the perimeter 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:17.600 as the march moved through the university grounds, they might 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:21.160 need their hands free. The march wound its way through grounds, 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:23.760 up the lawn, then up the steps of the University 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:27.320 of Virginia's iconic rotunda. On the other side of the rotunda, 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:30.680 gathered near the statue of Thomas Jefferson, a small group 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:34.560 of anti racist protesters waited. In her testimony during a 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:36.920 later civil trial, one of the women who was terrorized 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.400 that night said of the sound of the approaching crowd. 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:43.080 When we heard the roaring, we just linked arms and 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:47.160 held hands and started to sing. She said. At first 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:52.680 it sounded like thunder, like the earth was growling. As 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:54.880 they grew closer, but before she could see the light 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.600 of the torches, she began to make out the chance 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:02.520 hundreds of voices raised in Unison, shouting blood and soil. 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.600 Testifying about that night four years later, she said she 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:10.760 could still hear it sometimes in her nightmares, and by 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:13.320 the time the small group of mostly students realized the 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.560 magnitude and ferocity of the approaching mob, it was too late. 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.080 They were surrounded fully encircled at the base of the 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:24.200 statue by hundreds of torch wielding white supremacists for a 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:26.680 few minutes, minutes that those trapped at the base of 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.120 the statue said they believed might be their last. As 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:32.320 they were doused in lighter fluid, maced, and punched. There 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:35.279 was a melee. The police made no move to intervene, 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:38.040 as streams of pepper spray were let loose and cries 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.080 of medic were audible above the roar of you will 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:44.919 not replace us. When the trapped counter protesters were finally 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:48.080 able to flee, stumbling blindly with burning eyes and covering 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:50.560 their heads in a hail storm of fists and torches, 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:55.479 the marchers declared victory. Richard Spencer, an organizer of that 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:58.080 weekend's rally, climbed the base of the statue and delivered 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:00.560 a victory speech to the still roaring crow out now 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:05.480 shouting hail, victory, Hail Spencer. Spencer told them, we occupy 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:07.640 this ground. We won. 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:33.039 Girls, are all right, all right? All right? Were these 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:35.600 freaks on these rights. 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:37.279 By this ground? 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.680 We only one? 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:47.640 What in the hell are we doing out here? What 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:50.560 in the hell are we doing risking our lives. Are 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:54.760 were risking our lives, for our people, for our ancestors, 0:05:54.960 --> 0:06:05.120 for our future. That's how we're doing what you're think 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:09.760 an antick arts long, you're thinking antibuck and feed. 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:19.080 The marchers dispersed to their various hotels, campgrounds and airbnbs. 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:22.200 Spencer later said cheekly that he booked his under the 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:26.839 pseudonym literally Hitler. They had to rest up for the 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:30.560 real battle in the morning, and while they slept, a 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:34.000 young man from Ohio was driving through the night, perhaps 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.919 already knowing that his gray Dodge Challenger would be impounded 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:40.800 as a murder weapon. Before he slept again, he checked 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:44.800 Twitter and retweeted a post David Duke had tweeted images 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.719 of the Torch March celebrating the alt right success that 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:51.559 evening with the caption our people on the march, will 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:54.560 you be at Unite the Right tomorrow. As he left 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:57.200 Ohio that evening, the young man and the Dodge Challenger 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.800 got a text from his mother, a text weave all 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:05.240 probably gotten from our mothers. She said, be careful and 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:07.880 James Alex Fields Junior, in one of the last texts 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.120 he sent before a lifetime behind bars, replied to his 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:15.600 mother with a photograph of Hitler and the words we 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:21.080 are not the ones who need to be careful. Years later, 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:24.960 the word Charlesville has become synonymous with those two fused images, 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:29.080 Fields's mangled challenger and an iconic photo of the crowd 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:33.720 torches and hands the rotunda at their backs. Fields was 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.720 convicted both in state and federal court of Heather Hire's 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:41.040 murder and multiple counts of aggravated malicious wounding. Daniel Bordon, 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:45.040 Alex Ramos, Jacob Goodwin, and Tyler Watkins went away for 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:48.520 a brutal gang beating of a young black man. Richard Preston, 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.160 an imperial wizard in the Ku Klux Klan, did some 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.640 time for discharging his firearm in the general direction of 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:58.280 another young black man while shouting die and word. But 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:00.480 all in all, for all the violence of both days, 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.040 there was a curious reluctance to bring charges for anything 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:05.840 that didn't rise to the level of attempted murder, and 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:09.480 some things that did. There are thousands of photographs videos 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:14.000 from every conceivable angle taken by victims, bystanders, professional photojournalists, 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:18.560 and even the marchers themselves. Their faces are uncovered, their 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:23.640 motives are clear, and the law is fairly straightforward, but 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:27.120 the University of Virginia lies within the jurisdiction of Albemarle County. 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:31.480 In twenty seventeen, Apemwal County commonwealths Attorney Robert Tracy chose 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:34.240 not to bring any burning objects cases under Section eighteen 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:37.000 point two Dash four twenty three. He didn't think he 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.000 could make a case against the tiki torch mob, or 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.199 maybe he didn't want to. The commonwealths Attorney for the 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:45.440 City of Charlesville all the time, Dave Chapman, wrote in 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:47.400 a memo in October of that year that he did 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.160 believe the cases could be made, but they weren't his 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:54.560 to prosecute. But in Virginia, prosecutors come and go, and 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:59.000 a felony lives forever. In a October twenty nineteen debate 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.840 between then sitting Prosecutor Robert Tracy and his challenger, Jim Hinchley, 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.720 Tracy again scoffed at the idea of indicting these cases, 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:10.199 even saying that Hindley's belief that it was possible was 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:12.480 a sign he was inexperienced and wrong for the job. 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:17.560 A month later, Hineley won the election, and now it 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:20.000 seems he's trying to make good on his campaign promise 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:23.760 of proving Robert Tracy wrong. In February twenty twenty three, 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:27.600 the Albumole County Commonwealth's Atorney's office quietly sought and got 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:31.600 indictments under the Burning object Statute. A grand jury agreed 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:35.200 with Hindley there was probable cause to believe that objects 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:39.320 had been burned with the intent to intimidate. Fugitive warrants 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:42.319 were issued, arrests were made by local police and far 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:46.600 ranging jurisdictions, And now, nearly six years after that hot 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:50.679 night in August, the extraditions are starting. I want to 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:52.480 share with you the stories of the men who carried 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:55.559 torches that night. Some of them are now facing felony 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:59.280 charges of Almorle County. Others may come to share that fate. 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:02.600 After the crowd dispersed that night, and after the deadly 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:07.439 rally the next morning, those men went home. Some started businesses, 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:12.960 some died, Some trafficked drugs, beat their wives, choked their girlfriends, 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.000 went to grad school, went to prison, started families, ran 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:19.320 for office, left the movement, tried to lead the movement, 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.160 or just tried to disappear. There are as many stories 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.280 as there were flames in the night, when their voices 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:31.400 joined as one, shouting, Jews will not replace us, then 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:35.960 going their separate ways back to the communities they came from. 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:39.640 And now some of them are on their way back, 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:45.360 this time against their will. So I wrote that about 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:47.760 ten months ago, last April, just as the first cases 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:51.720 were unsealed. Obviously a lot's happened since then. But before 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:54.040 I get into a recap of those first ten cases, 0:10:54.160 --> 0:11:04.640 let's hear a brief word about some products and services. 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:13.079 So if Thomas Rousseau is number eleven on this list 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.880 of tiki torch defendants who were the first ten, the 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:19.439 grand jury that convened in February of last year handed 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:25.119 down the first five indictments, will Zachary Smith, William Billy Williams, 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:30.640 Tyler Dykes, Dallas, Medina, and William Fears. Will Smith of Nakona, 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:34.640 Texas was the first in custody. He was actually already 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:37.480 in custody here in Charlottesville when the first charges were filed. 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:40.640 He had been indicted on a separate felony charge back 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.719 in twenty eighteen for Pepper Spring the counter protesters that night, 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:46.760 but remained a fugitive until his arrest in January twenty 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.959 twenty three, so when the prosecutor brought the torch charges 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:52.200 to the grand jury in February, it was probably an 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:55.840 easy first choice. Will Smith pled guilty to the torch 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:59.000 charge in May in a sealed plea deal that dropped 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:03.040 the much more serious pepper spray felony, and was allowed 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:07.920 to return home without being sentenced. Billy Williams traveled here 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.000 with will Smith back in twenty seventeen. The pair were 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:15.320 acting as bodyguards for Robert Asmadore Ray, the Daily Stormer blogger, 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:19.200 who is actually also still a wanted fugitive on a 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:22.160 felony charge of pepper spraying those counter protesters that night. 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.400 When Billy Williams was extradited from Texas in April of 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:32.640 last year, he was denied bond after some apparent dishonesty 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:36.240 regarding his relationship with Robert Ray. Through his attorney, he 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.000 denied having had any contact with Ray while he was 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:42.640 a fugitive. He in fact claimed they barely knew each other, 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.440 having met only a couple of times. I can tell 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:49.200 you that's not that's not true. But after claiming that 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:52.920 they'd had no contact in the intervening years. The prosecutor 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.120 revealed in the bond hearing that law enforcement partners had 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.720 shared information with his office that they believe that not 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:02.160 only had they been contact, but that Ray had been 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:05.559 living with Williams, living on his property while he was 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:09.360 in hiding as a fugitive. Williams two pled guilty to 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.600 the burning object charge in July, receiving an active sentence 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:16.240 of six months but with time served and good behavior. 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:18.959 He was home barely two weeks after entering his plea, 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.359 but not before he missed the birth of his seventh 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:25.960 child with his common law wife. Tyler Diykes was arrested 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:28.600 on Saint Patrick's Day. He'd been out with other members 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:31.320 of the white supremacist group the Southern Sons Active Club, 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:34.160 trying to hang a racist banner from a highway overpass 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:38.160 in Savannah, Georgia, when he was unfortunately bitten by a dog. 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.280 I do not have information on what came of the dog. 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:45.400 I hope he's okay, concerned about infection, though, Tyler Diykes 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:47.640 went to the emergency room to have the wound looked at. 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:51.040 In Georgia, as in most states, emergency rooms contact the 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.800 police to report dog bite injuries. An officer was dispatched 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:56.840 to the hospital to take a report from Dikes about 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.920 the dog bite incident, which is a fairly routine situation, 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:05.400 but somewhere during their interaction in the hospital, the officer 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:08.439 ran Dike's name to the system and it came back 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:12.120 with a warrant. A panicked Dikes sent his hate group 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:16.400 group chat a quick text, I'm being arrested by Virginia 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:20.440 nuke my account. In video of the melee the base 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:23.200 of the statue on August eleven, twenty seventeen, Dikes can 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:26.840 be seen throwing punches even after everyone else had stopped, 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:30.640 and then celebrating the victory by marching around in a weird, 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:33.240 tight little circle with his right arm extended in a 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.560 Nazi salute. Dikes pled guilty to the torch charge in 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:38.920 May and received the same six month act of sentence 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:42.280 Williams had gotten with time served and good behavior. He 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.040 was released in July. I wonder if he expected to 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:47.200 see his elderly parents waiting for him in the parking 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:49.760 lot outside of the album ArHL Charltsville Regional Jail that day, 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:53.520 but he never made it that far. US marshals took 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.880 him into federal custody before he ever walked outside. He's 0:14:56.920 --> 0:14:59.440 currently out on bond, awaiting trial on ten counts for 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:03.520 his participate patient in the January sixth insurrection. Dallas Medina 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.400 of Ohio turned himself in in April and was allowed 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:09.360 to return home on bond. He had been an active 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:12.600 member of an extremely online group of mass shooting enthusiasts 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:16.160 calling themselves the Bowl Patrol, so named after the bull 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.960 cut hair styles sported by their idol, Dylan Roof. After 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:22.720 a feud with Chris the Crying Nazi Catwell ended with 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.680 Catwell in federal prison, the group more or less fell 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:29.240 apart in twenty twenty. Medina hasn't appeared in court since 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:32.400 his bond hearing in April, and he doesn't yet have 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:35.760 a trial date. William Fiers was booked into the Albumoral 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:38.720 Charlesville Regional Jail in June after being transferred from the 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:41.680 Texas prison where he was serving a sentence for domestic violence. 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:45.080 Just two months after Unite the Right, William Fears beat 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:49.520 and choked his girlfriend. A few days later, he traveled 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:51.800 to Florida with his brother, Colton Fears and their friend 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.640 Tyler Tenbrink. To see Richard Spencer's speech at the University 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:57.400 of Florida. He knew when he left town for Gainesville 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:00.600 that week that his girlfriend had reported the assault, having 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:03.720 already been to prison for abducting and stabbing a different 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:07.520 ex girlfriend years earlier, He knew another conviction would put 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.480 him away for a while, and he wanted one last 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.400 shot at starting the race war before they got him. 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:16.360 In video from the Torch March, William Fears can be 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:21.760 seen swinging his torch at a counter protester, screaming Die Commie. 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.120 Fears remains in custody but does not yet have a 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:27.640 trial date. William's brother, Colton Fears, joined him at the 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:31.560 Albumarle Charlesville Regional Jail in September. I suspect the jail 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.080 probably kept them separated, but it still would have been 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.000 the closest the brothers had been in years. When the 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:39.800 brothers were in Gainesville in October of twenty seventeen, their 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.480 friend Tyler Tenbrink shot at a group of anti fascist 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:46.920 counter protesters after Richard Spencer's speech. Thankfully, no one was injured, 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:51.520 but Tenbrink was convicted of attempted first degree homicide. Colton 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:53.400 Fears was driving the car when the men left the 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:55.480 scene of the shooting, and spent five years in a 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:58.320 Florida prison for accessory after the fact to attempted first 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:01.880 degree homicide. Colton was released in twenty twenty two and 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:05.000 returned home to Texas, where he was then arrested in 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:08.760 August twenty twenty three on the burning object charge. After 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:11.240 pleading guilty in October, he was allowed to return home 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:16.000 prior to sentencing. Ryan Roy of Vermont turned himself in 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:19.439 in May. If you've been reading the voluminous leagues that 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:23.400 seemed to be constantly springing forth from Patriot Front's online comms, 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:27.240 you may know him better as Rex. It looks like 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:29.280 he's stayed quite busy in the years since Unite the 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:32.040 Right as a member of Patriot Front. He is currently 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.040 home on bond and does not yet have a trial date. 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:38.440 Jamie Troutman of West Virginia turned himself in in October 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:42.280 under the pseudonym Altright VA. Troutman was an active organizer 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:44.560 and planner of the Unit the Right rally. He was 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:46.840 present at many of the precursor events that took place 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:49.800 here in Charlesville during the Summer of Hate, including the 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:53.040 two other torch marches, smaller torchlit rallies that were held 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:56.320 in downtown Charlottesville in May and October of that year. 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:01.000 Like Dyke's photos show, Troutman was present at the Capitol 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.879 on January sixth, though in Troutman's case no charges have 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.320 been filed, he too is home on bond with no 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:10.000 trial date set. And before we get to the last 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:12.600 two of those first ten cases, let's hear from someone 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.000 who has also not been charged in connection with the 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:19.000 militant reactionary attempt to overthrow the US government these products 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:33.520 and services. The final two of these first ten torch 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:37.520 cases are the messy ones. So we've got these four 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.200 guilty please, and we've got four cases that are sort 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:44.200 of moving along slowly down the usual path. And then 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:46.280 we've got two cases where the defendants have had some 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:50.680 success bogging the cases down with motions. Jacob Dix of 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:54.399 Ohio was arrested in July. Dix is seen in photos 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:56.360 and video on the eleventh and twelfth with two other 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.920 Ohio men, his roommate Ryan Martin, who recently passed away, 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.119 and Daniel Borden, one of the men convicted of beating 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:05.840 a man nearly to death during the rally on August twelfth. 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.280 I'm sure we'll learn more about Dix as his case progresses, 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:12.240 but I have found him in photos with the Traditionalist 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:14.639 Worker Party at the Nazi rally in Pikeville earlier that 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:18.280 same summer. In his torch case, he has been granted 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:21.920 both a substitute judge and a special prosecutor based on 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:26.720 a sort of nebulous though very loudly argued conspiracy theory 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:29.000 involving the wife of a judge who is not even 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:31.879 presiding over his case and a prosecutor who has a 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:36.760 history of expressing anti racist political views in his personal life. 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:39.399 Dix is out on bond. With the recent rule in 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.520 granting him a special prosecutor, we may be seeing a 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:46.520 trial date get set in the near future. And finally, 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:51.040 Augustus Sole Invictus until Rousseau was arrested last week, the 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:55.400 biggest name in this batch was Augustus and Victus. Even 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:57.480 before his name was on the fliers as a headline 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:00.520 speaker at Unite the Right, Invictus was no stranger to thees. 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:03.760 In twenty sixteen, he ran for US Senate in Florida 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:07.840 as a libertarian. His campaign was marred by such controversies 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:11.680 as his own past statements on eugenics, a twenty thirteen 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:15.600 ritual sacrifice of a goat, his legal representation of white 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:20.639 supremacist militia leader Marcus Faiella, and numerous police reports from 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:25.360 both his wife and his teenage girlfriend alleging domestic violence. 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:29.360 In the years since, Invictis never did become a US 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:33.280 senator despite a second attempt, and never did get convicted 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:39.640 of domestic violence despite many, many more police reports. He's 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:43.120 also no longer a pagan. Asked recently about the goat 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.200 blood drinking ritual he performed in twenty thirteen, he quipped 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:50.719 that he drinks human blood now just a little transubstantiation 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:55.399 joke about his recent conversion to traditional Catholicism. Invictus was 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:57.760 arrested on the burning object charge in Florida in June 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:00.199 twenty twenty three and held for a month before being 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:04.399 extradited to Virginia and released on bond. Like Dix, he 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:07.639 has been granted a substitute judge. He too is seeking 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:09.879 a special prosecutor, but no ruling was made at his 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:14.240 last hearing. Currently, his case is docketed for trial next month. 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:18.480 But I'm willing to bet that gets postponed. So that's 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:21.240 more or less where we are now. Rousseau is the 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.120 eleventh man to be charged in these cases. We've got 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:26.840 four guilty please on the record, leaving him as one 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:30.320 of seven open cases. We can expect to see Rousseau 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:33.119 extradited from Texas to Virginia in the near future. I 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:35.399 would say maybe a week or two, although some of 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:37.480 them have been held for up to a month before 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:40.160 a deputy can get down there and bring them back. 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:42.480 Something I was really surprised to learn in all of 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:46.960 this is in most extraditions for state cases like this, 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:49.720 like these are not federal cases. These are local cases. 0:21:51.119 --> 0:21:55.160 When someone gets extradited long distance, a deputy just flies 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:58.760 down there and then they fly back together on a 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:02.840 commercial airline. It's not like a con air situation. They're 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:06.080 just on an airplane together. So it really depends on 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:07.879 when a deputy can sort of get down there and 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:09.880 get them. So he'll be extradited sometime in the next 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:12.240 few weeks, and then once he's booked into the album 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:14.720 RL Charltsville Regional Jail, he'll get an appearance in court. 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:18.160 It's anybody's guest right now who he'll hire to represent him. 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:21.479 Former Proud Boy and current Patriot Front lawyer Jason Lee 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:23.720 van Dyke was thoughtful enough to reply to one of 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:26.520 my tweets about Rousseau's arrest to say that he will 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.880 not be taking this case. As much as he would 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:32.240 have loved to try this case, which he said that 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:33.600 he would do a very good job doing and he 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:37.639 could definitely do it, and unfortunately he just can't. He 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:41.080 cited the difficulty in finding local council to assist. He's 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:43.040 not admitted to the bar in Virginia, so who would 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:45.200 need someone who is to sort of sponsor him in 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:47.920 and be responsible for him in the case. So he said, 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:50.159 you know, he can't find local council, and also it 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:52.919 would just be two time consuming and too expensive to 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:56.400 try a case in Virginia as he's located in Texas. 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:00.640 So it won't be Jason Lee van Dyke writing about 0:23:00.640 --> 0:23:04.240 these cases in my newsletter The Devil's Advocates. It's on Ghost, 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:08.399 which is like substack, but it's not substack. It's Ghost 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:11.280 and I'm looking forward to writing some updates very soon. 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:14.400 The finding out for this particular fucking around has been 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:17.760 a long time coming, and I can't help but wonder 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:21.480 if these cases had been brought sooner, Patriot Front might 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:25.760 not even exist. You know, I suspect once Rousseau has 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:27.919 gotten a lawyer, he will ask for a bond hearing. 0:23:28.400 --> 0:23:32.360 That's probably what's next. It's impossible to know how much 0:23:32.359 --> 0:23:35.639 information other law enforcement agencies are interested in sharing with 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:39.480 the local prosecutor, but that kind of information sharing did 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:41.880