Tag: Daryl Davis

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Shooter sentenced: KKK imperial wizard gets four years

Richard Preston leaves court May 8 after pleading no contest to firing a gun August 12, 2017. File photo

 

At the first felony sentencing from last year’s violent Unite the Right rally, a judge on August 21 ordered a Maryland Confederate White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan leader to serve four years in prison for firing a gun at flamethrower-wielding Corey Long after an unlawful assembly had been declared.

Richard Wilson Preston, 53, had pleaded no contest May 8 to discharging a weapon within 1,000 feet of a school, which carries from two to 10 years in prison. The charge is made so infrequently that the court had no sentencing guidelines, and Preston’s attorney Elmer Woodard called it a “chocolate sauce charge” to enhance existing laws.

In a widely viewed ACLU video from August 12, 2017, Preston is seen pulling out a pistol and firing toward Long, who is standing beside what is now Market Street Park and aiming a makeshift flamethrower at rally-goers as they exited the park. Long was convicted of disorderly conduct June 8 and is appealing his conviction.

Screenshot of the ACLU video showing Richard Preston firing at Corey Long.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania noted the importance of the sentencing both for Preston and for the community, and asked for eight years. He stressed the case was not about Preston’s ideology, but about proving his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. “This is about punishing the conduct and choices Mr. Preston made,” said Platania.

“He made a decision to utter a racial slur and fire a gun in the middle of this incredibly charged situation,” said the prosecutor, who also noted that Preston didn’t appear to show “much remorse” for his actions.

Klan whisperer Daryl Davis, a black musician who has spent 30 years befriending KKK members to try to understand why they hate people because of the color of their skin, testified he’d known Preston for five years, that he’d taken him to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, and had walked Preston’s fiancee down the aisle when they recently married. Davis previously testified that he’d put up half of Preston’s bond.

Woodard, who’s become the go-to attorney for several white supremacists charged that day, said Preston was a “little agitated” after having a newspaper box thrown at him and being threatened with a nail-studded stick.

“This whole thing was started by a man with a flamethrower,” said Woodard. “Mr. Preston kept them from being burned alive.”

He compared Preston’s actions to the “lost battalion” of World War I that suffered enormous losses and faced German flamethrowers: “It’s all about the willingness to stand up at the risk of being burned alive himself,” said the mutton-chopped attorney from Blairs.

Blairs attorney Elmer Woodard leaves Charlottesville Circuit Court after his Klan client was sentenced to four years. staff photo

“I don’t believe it’s proper to send a man to prison who didn’t hurt anyone,” added Woodard.

Before the judge sentenced him, Preston, in a choked voice, said, “I didn’t want to hurt anybody.”

Moore said he had to base his sentence on what he’d seen on a day when downtown Charlottesville was like a “tinderbox.” Earlier in the day, Preston was shouting threats and showing his gun, said the judge. “This whole thing was driven by anger and belligerence, not fear.”

Moore didn’t see flames that close to the people leaving the park, he said. “I don’t find you saving their lives by firing.”

He added, “I don’t think he shot the gun out of necessity.”

Moore compared Preston to a “middle-school kid” and said his action was “one of the most foolish, dangerous things you would ever do,” before sentencing Preston to eight years, with four suspended, three years probation and 10 years of good behavior.

Before a deputy led Preston away, the imperial wizard mouthed, “I love you” to his sobbing bride in the courtroom.

Davis says there were a lot of “what-ifs” in the prosecution’s case: What if someone had walked in front of Preston’s gun or got hit by a ricochet or others started firing? “These are all valid points,” writes Davis in an email, “but there was no mention of, ‘What if the flame had indeed come in contact with the clothing of one of the people descending the steps and caught this person on fire? What if that caused even more people retaliate and an all out race war got started?’”

Davis would have liked to have seen Preston sentenced to time served, a fine, anger management courses and more racial educational outings with him. And ultimately, he says, “I blame the police. Had they been doing their job instead of standing around doing nothing, neither Corey nor Richard would have been inclined to engage their weapons.”

Also during court August 21, Woodard withdrew appeals for his clients Evan McLaren, executive director of Richard Spencer’s National Policy Institute, and JonPaul Struys, both of whom were convicted of failure to disperse when ordered out of what was then called Emancipation Park August 12. A third client, Identity Evropa founder Nathan Amigo, had previously withdrawn his appeal of the misdemeanor conviction.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania says the judge was careful and went into great detail before sentencing Richard Preston. staff photo

 

 

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Preston’s plea: Imperial wizard says no contest to firing gun

Baltimore’s imperial wizard of the Confederate White Knights of the KKK did not appear in court wearing his shiny Klan robes. He didn’t wear the prison stripes from previous appearances, nor did he wear the bandana and tactical vest he sported August 12 when he was videoed firing a Ruger SR9 toward flamethrower-brandishing Corey Long.

Richard Wilson Preston wore a dark pinstriped suit and tie in Charlottesville Circuit Court May 8 when he told a judge that he was pleading no contest to a charge of discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school, a class 4 felony that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years and fine up to $100,000.

Even though his plea was no contest, his mutton-chopped, boater-hat-wearing attorney from Blairs, Virginia,—Elmer Woodard—objected when Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania read a statement of facts of evidence the commonwealth would have presented had there been the three-day trial scheduled to begin May 9.

Judge Rick Moore had to remind Woodard, “You can’t object when you plead no contest.”

One of the witnesses would have been former Charlottesville mayor Frank Buck, whom Platania said saw Long ignite an aerosol spray can directed toward people leaving Emancipation Park after the Unite the Right rally was declared an unlawful assembly. Buck also saw Preston pull out a silver handgun and point it toward the ground beside Long, and he heard someone shout a racial slur at Long and then a gunshot, according to the prosecutor.

Moore found the evidence as summarized “substantial,” and corroborated by bullet fragments and Preston’s own admission to the FBI after his arrest August 26. He scheduled sentencing for May 9, but warned he still could order a pre-sentence report before sentencing Preston.

Legal expert David Heilberg says the no contest plea is unusual, but it’s the “functional equivalent of a guilty plea.” He also said that if a jury had convicted Preston, they would not have been able to give him fewer than two years.

In court today, Platania showed the judge videos taken earlier on August 12 in which the C-VILLE Weekly box was hurled and Preston is heard saying, “I will go out and shoot you. I’ll shoot you.” In another he says, “I’m pissed off. I’m going to shoot one of these motherfuckers,” to which Woodard objected that the video doesn’t show Preston making the latter comment.

“I saw him say it with his mouth moving,” said Moore.

Woodard, dressed in a seersucker suit and red tie, presented four witnesses who testified they felt endangered by Long. Jonathan Howe, a law clerk in Maryland who was here for the rally, said he’d gotten doused with “some kind of paint thinner” as he left the park.

“This was a very surreal moment,” he said. “I had a flammable substance on my hand and someone running around with a flamethrower.” He said he was apprehensive that he could become a “human torch.”

Woodard had subpoenaed DeAndre Harris, the man who was brutally beaten in the Market Street Parking Garage. It was after 10:30am when Woodard asked if Harris were present. “The time to ask that might have been 9:30,” observed the judge.

And although Platania stipulated that paint thinner is volatile and ignites quickly, Woodard showed the judge a clip of Harris and Long spraying a Confederate flag and lighting it, noting  “the flame and puff.”

Witness David Fowler said “one little girl got me three times” with pepper spray. He says he was unable to see and being helped out of the park when he heard the whoosh of the aerosol can. “As far as I’m concerned, [Preston] is a hero,” said Fowler. “We shouldn’t be here.”

Gregory Scott “Woodsy” Woods from Glasgow, Virginia, also encountered Long as he left the park and described swinging his flagpole at Long and knocking the aerosol out of his hand after Long “kind of charges at me with the flamethrower.” Woods said he could feel the heat and was trapped on the steps leading to the park until Preston fired his gun.

Under cross examination, Woods denied he said Long was charging at him after Platania showed him a video, which was not visible to the rest of the courtroom. “Once he lights it, he takes a step forward,” said Woods.

Not all of the witnesses were present at the exit from Emancipation Park. Daryl Davis, a black musician who’s known for befriending Klansmen to understand why they hate him in hopes of dispelling that, testified he’s known Preston for five years and they both live in the Baltimore area.

Davis said he put up 50 percent of Preston’s bond and was going to take him to see the African American Museum of History in Washington, but Preston’s house arrest prevented that visit. And when shown apparently racist comments Preston posted on Facebook after August 12—those were not read in court—Davis said he regrets those sentiments.

“I’m testifying because he’s my friend,” said Davis. “He’s in trouble and I’m trying to help.”

After three hours in the courtroom, Moore, as he’d predicted, ordered a pre-sentence report and set August 21 for Preston’s sentencing.

 

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August 12 shooter and Market Street Garage attackers go to grand jury

Imperial wizard Billy Snuffer came to court to support fellow Klansman Richard Preston, accused of firing a gun at Emancipation Park August 12. Daryl Davis has made it a mission to meet KKKers to find out why they hate him for the color of his skin. Eze Amos

Three out-of-towners who were charged following the August 12 Unite the Right rally were in court December 14 for preliminary hearings, where a judge determined there was probable cause to seek grand jury indictments.

Baltimore resident and Confederate White Knights of the KKK imperial wizard Richard Preston, 52, is charged with shooting a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school. Alex Michael Ramos, 34, from Jackson, Georgia, is charged with felonious assault, and Jacob Scott Goodwin, 23, from Ward, Arkansas, is charged with malicious wounding, both in the Market Street Garage beating of Deandre Harris.

The three men were in court the same day as the hearing for James Fields, the man accused of killing Heather Heyer when he drove into a crowd. The judge ordered increased security in the courtroom, and he warned that anyone making noise would be removed.

Fellow KKKers, including Billy Snuffer, imperial wizard of the Rebel Brigade Knights of the True Invisible Empire, showed up in support of Preston.

Preston’s attorney, Elmer Woodard, also represents Goodwin and “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell. The Danville attorney, known for his showmanship in his appearances here, was corrected twice on the pronunciation of the name of Commonwealth’s Attorney-elect Joe Platania.

Platania called one witness, attorney and former mayor Frank Buck, who was near the corner of Market and Second streets when the rally was declared an unlawful assembly and whites-righters streamed out of Emancipation Park.

Buck testified he saw Preston point his gun at Corey Long, who made a flamethrower from an aerosol can. “I heard the gun discharge,” he said, and he saw a puff in the mulch near Long’s feet.

ACLU video

He followed Preston at a distance, and then filed a complaint with a magistrate. “He fired a handgun in the midst of people,” said Buck. “That struck me as an unlawful discharge.”

Woodard, who brought an aerosol can that he shook in court, asked Buck why he didn’t file a complaint against Long.

At that point, Judge Bob Downer interrupted the attorney. “All we’re here for today is to determine whether a firearm was unlawfully fired within 1,000 feet of a school. You seem to quibble about the distance of the flamethrower.”

Widely circulated video shows Preston firing a Ruger SR9 in the direction of Long, who was subpoenaed by Woodard but did not appear in court.

Woodard produced four witnesses who testified Preston saved them from the flamethrower. “There was nowhere to go and I was getting ready to be burned alive,” said Glasgow resident Scott Woods.

Another witness was testifying to the proficiency of Preston’s shooting when Downer interrupted again and reminded the lawyer that the preliminary hearing was only to determine probable cause that Preston fired his gun in the vicinity of Park School.

Despite Woodard’s argument that Preston’s firing was justifiable, that he kept people from being burned and was a “hero,” Downer certified the charge to the grand jury, which indicted him December 18.

Jacob Goodwin, Alex Michael Ramos and Richard Preston were in court December 14 for August 12-related charges. Charlottesville police

Detective Declan Hickey described on the stand his investigation into the beating of Harris, and the identification of some of the men who allegedly took part in that, including Goodwin and Ramos.

Goodwin was arrested October 11, and Hickey pointed him out in a video wearing all black and carrying a shield. Goodwin’s attorney painted a picture of self-defense and said Harris “ran at this man. He had to defend himself.”

Woodard asked the detective why he didn’t arrest another man in the video, who was wearing a brimmed hat and whom Woodard dubbed “Boonie Hat.”

“What’s appalling,” he said, “is that the commonwealth didn’t know Boonie Hat existed.”

He had Goodwin stand up, and the lawyer kneed him in the buttocks, apparently to demonstrate the extent of Goodwin’s involvement, contending, “That’s not malicious wounding.”

Ramos’ attorney, Jake Joyce, argued his client’s involvement in the beating did not rise to malicious wounding. “It might be assault and battery,” he said.

Downer did not buy those arguments, and said under the standard of probable cause, there was enough evidence to certify the charges to the grand jury, which met December 18 and handed down indictments for the two men. As for Boonie Hat, the judge said he hoped police find him.

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Arts

TEDxCharlottesville speakers challenge our way of thinking

Open-dialogue proponent Daryl Davis will speak about his work with the Ku Klux Klan, which has resulted in hundreds of members leaving the KKK. Courtesy of Daryl Davis

Artists, educators and innovators take the stage on Friday at the Paramount’s TEDxCharlottesville event. Among them are blues musician Daryl Davis whose friendship with members of the Ku Klux Klan has caused many of them to question their membership, National Geographic photographer Ami Vitale, who finds connections between cultures, and entrepreneur and cartoonist Chic Thompson, whose dyslexia enables him to see things in an innovative way. C-VILLE spoke with each of them about their life experience and what to expect at TEDx.

Daryl Davis

Davis, currently based in Silver Spring, Maryland, has spent the last 30 years befriending KKK members, about 200 of whom have subsequently left the KKK. How does he begin a conversation with a Klansman? First, he says, “You learn as much as you can about someone on the other side. Even though they may not like me, they respect my knowledge.” This also helps to keep his emotions in check. “If you go in blind, you’re apt to be very angry,” he says.

Davis, who is now 59, lived overseas in early childhood while his parents worked in the U.S. Foreign Service and he met people of all races and backgrounds. “I was used to what we call today diversity or multiculturalism,” he says. When his family returned to the U.S. in 1968, a 10-year-old Davis was one of two black children in the school he attended in a suburb outside of Boston. One day while his Cub Scout pack marched in a parade, white bystanders began throwing rocks and soda cans at him. “I didn’t realize I was the sole target until my den mothers and scout leaders came to protect my body with their bodies,” he says.

After he told his parents what happened, “They told me for the first time in my life what racism was,” Davis says. The concept was so foreign to him, he didn’t believe them. But six weeks later, on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. “Then I realized my parents hadn’t lied to me,” he says. “A question formed in my mind: ‘How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?’ I’ve been seeking that answer ever since.”

And who better to ask than a Klansman? “I never set out to convert them,” he says. But after befriending him, many have questioned their beliefs and left the Klan. As a result, Davis has become a proponent of open dialogue and has come to believe, “When two enemies are talking, they’re not fighting,” he says. “It’s when the talking ceases that the ground becomes fertile for violence.” He further reasons, “Racism is learned behavior. …Dialogue made them this way. Dialogue can undo it as well.”

Ami Vitale. Courtesy subject

Ami Vitale

National Geographic photographer Vitale says she used to be shy, but looking through a camera lens helped her engage with the world. “By putting attention on others, it empowered me,” she says. Her work, in turn, empowers her subjects by making them visible. Photography, she says, “became this incredible tool for creating awareness and understanding across cultures, and countries.”

This concept has become her passion. “There is a universal truth that we have more in common than we often realize,” says Vitale. “And it behooves us as journalists and storytellers to give a broader vision of what the world looks like.” She seeks out “stories of love, courage and those that inspire empathy” to connect us.

Chic Thompson. Courtesy subject

Chic Thompson

Thompson is an entrepreneur whose résumé includes product development at W.L. Gore (maker of Gore-Tex), marketing at Disney, founding his own cartoon company and WAGiLabs, an incubator for kids’ ideas, and teaching creative leadership. Now a Batten Fellow of entrepreneurship at Darden, he says, “The most common question that I get asked is how did you go from dropping out of college to working as a chemist to drawing cartoons to now teaching at schools that would never accept you as a student?”

His answer is simple. “I see in opposites,” he says, a perspective he attributes to “the gift of dyslexia.” It causes him to “take a lot of supposed missteps,” but ones that have led him to success. “I love the magic of opposite thinking, because at first glance opposite ideas sound absurd, contradictory, illogical and fly in the face of all reason.” But on second look, he says, “They can open up possibilities, break through mental blocks and pull the rug out from under false assumptions.”