Tag: Elmer Woodard

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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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Permit-less: Kessler withdraws motion for August 11-12 rallies

Jason Kessler was late for an important date in court July 24—and then he withdrew his motion to have a judge order a Unite the Right2 permit. staff photo

After plaintiff Jason Kessler showed up 45 minutes late to federal court for his own motion to order Charlottesville to grant him a permit to hold an event the weekend of August 12, it took the judge about two seconds to grant Kessler’s attorney’s request to withdraw the motion.

“He’s not going to hold a rally here August 12,” said Kessler’s Cinncinati, Ohio, attorney James Kolenich, who was himself late to court and earned a reprimand from Judge Norman Moon.

Kolenich said he could not promise that his client, the organizer of last summer’s deadly Unite the Right rally, wouldn’t walk around town with a small group of people, which does not require a permit.

City Councilor Wes Bellamy said he was relieved the motion was withdrawn. “I couldn’t be more pleased,” he said.

“We’re going to be prepared,” said Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney, who still expects a large number of people here that weekend.

On December 11, City Manager Maurice Jones denied a permit application from Kessler for August 11 and 12 events running from 6am to 11pm in the former Lee/Emancipation park, now known as Market Street Park, citing public safety concerns. He also denied several other applicants for that weekend.

Kessler filed a suit against the city, and today’s hearing was to get a judge to issue a temporary injunction ordering the city to give him a permit.

Around half a dozen attorneys were gathered on the city’s side of the courtroom, but on Kessler’s side, attorney Elmer Woodard was alone, with both his client and co-counsel MIA.

Woodard proceeded, and argued that the city’s denial of Kessler’s application for a permit at “Lee Park” was content based and unconstitutional.

Judge Moon had questions about the length of the rally, the number of people Kessler expected and exactly what Kessler wanted the court to order.

Woodard said Kessler wanted a two-hour protest at 2pm August 11 at “Lee Park,” which he insisted was “not a burden on the city.” The attorney pooh-poohed the city’s public safety concerns, and took issue with its “stony refusal to grant” Kessler a permit.

Moon asked if Kessler had an organization. Kessler founded Unity and Security for America, and Woodard said Kessler was its only member. The attorney estimated between 200 and 300 people would show up.

“His deposition said 24 people,” the judge pointed out.

“If 24 people show up, he doesn’t need a permit,” said Woodard. “If it’s 51, he does.”

The city’s DC-based attorney, John Longstreth, said Kessler’s plans were “a moving target” and that apparently Kessler believed his initial application for a two-day permit was “an opening offer to negotiate and then he goes to federal court to get a judge’s order.”

Longstreth maintained that Kessler wanted a redo of last year’s event that “led to riot and disorder,” of which Kessler made fun. “Last year was an unimaginable disaster for Charlottesville,” he said.

Kessler was going on the darkest regions of the internet and “trolling” people who are violent and extreme, said Longstreth. “He has no idea who he’s stirring up.”

It was during the city’s opening statement that Kolenich appeared, and his response to a question about documents he had not filed caused Moon to ask Kolenich if he was contemptuous of the hearing.

“I would like to know why we’re here today,” said the exasperated judge. “It’s just not proper to ask for a permit for two days in the park and then say two hours is enough.”

Moon continued to scold the tardy attorney and said he didn’t want recriminations and name calling. “Your client isn’t here and you weren’t here.” He called a 10-minute recess.

During the break, Kessler showed up, and once court was in session, Kolenich said he was withdrawing the motion.

Afterward, in response to a reporter’s question about Kessler, Kolenich said, “I don’t know if he has mental health issues.” And when asked why Kessler was late, the attorney responded, “No comment.”

Kolenich said he advised Kessler to withdraw the motion because there were issues with discovery.

He also said he knows Kessler “is hated in this community” and that Kessler regretted inviting Nazis to last year’s event, but is unable to apologize.

And in a strange side note, Kolenich said to not link to news site Cincinnati.com. That prompted a question about whether the attorney was anti-Semitic. “Yes, Mr. Shapira,” said Kolenich to Washington Post reporter Ian Shapira. That, said Kolenich, was “because I’m a Catholic.”

On July 25, Woodard filed a motion to withdraw from representing Kessler on the grounds that he “has not met his financial responsibilities and that the representation has been rendered unreasonably difficult by the client.” According to the motion, Kessler indicated he would substitute local counsel for his lawsuit against the city for denying his permit, which is still on the books.

And on Twitter, Kessler said he intends to focus exclusively on an August 12 rally in Washington, DC.

Updated July 26 with Woodard’s withdrawal.

 

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And stay out: Cantwell pleads guilty, banned from Virginia for five years

Crying Nazi Chris Cantwell bids an anti-Semitic adieu to Charlottesville. Photo by Eze Amos

Chris Cantwell, aka the Crying Nazi, came to Charlottesville a year ago to chant “Jews will not replace us” while marching through UVA Grounds. As the self-proclaimed racist shock jock was booted from Virginia July 20, he hurled a final invective at local media outside the Albemarle Circuit Court when he refused to comment to “you Jews.”

Cantwell faced two felony charges of pepper-spraying Emily Gorcenski and Kristopher Goad in front of the Rotunda at the base of the Jefferson statue August 11, 2017, where a group of around 40 counterprotesters were surrounded by several hundred tiki-torch carrying white supremacists.

The New Hampshire man was supposed to be in court July 20 for a bond hearing. Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci filed a motion to revoke Cantwell’s bond for violating the terms of his release by identifying the victims in his broadcasts. It would have been the second time he’d been brought in for bond violation. The first was a drunk in public arrest March 31 in Leesburg, where he’s been housed while awaiting trial.

Instead, Cantwell entered a guilty plea for two misdemeanor counts of assault and battery. He was sentenced to two years in prison, with all but the 107 days he’d already spent in jail suspended.

He was given eight hours to get out of town—and the commonwealth—and is banned from the state for five years. He may not carry a weapon here and he’s forbidden to contact Gorcenski and Goad directly or indirectly, including through social media and radio. He was also ordered to pay $250 for doing so while out on bond.

According to Tracci, Gorcenski and Goad supported the plea agreement. Gorcenski is now living overseas, “partly as a result of harassment associated with this case,” he said.

In court, Tracci told the judge that video evidence would have shown Cantwell pepper spraying a man known only as “Beanie Man,” and that the defense would have argued Cantwell sprayed in self-defense. Gorcenski and Goad were gassed in the spray’s drift.

Little known outside the alt-right circles that listened to his “Radical Agenda” radio show, Cantwell gained more widespread notoriety when he came to Charlottesville as a speaker for last year’s Unite the Right rally, and espoused his white supremacist views to Vice reporter Elle Reeve throughout the weekend. His opinions were aired in a segment called “Charlottesville: Race and Terror.”

“We’ll fucking kill these people if we have to,” he said after the rally that left counterprotester  Heather Heyer dead and dozens more injured.

He became known as the Crying Nazi after he posted a teary YouTube video about the warrant for his arrest before turning himself in in Lynchburg.

“This agreement reflects the defendant’s acceptance of criminal responsibility for his dispersal of pepper spray on August 11, 2017,” said Tracci in a statement. The agreement does not preclude additional prosecution for conduct on that date, added the prosecutor.

Cantwell left the courthouse accompanied by mutton-chopped attorney Elmer Woodard, who’s representing several white supremacists charged following last year’s Unite the Right rally.

It was Daily Progress reporter Lauren Berg’s last day, and she filmed Cantwell’s response to a request for comment. As Woodard tipped his boater hat to the press, Cantwell answered, “You can contact me through my website instead of this gotcha garbage, you Jews.”

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Odd couple: Remaining August 12 lawsuit defendants say they’re not paramilitary

Mary McCord, right, is a senior litigator with Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Staff photo

An unlikely pair of lawyers sat together in Charlottesville Circuit Court June 12 to defend clients that don’t have much in common, except that they attended last summer’s Unite the Right rally and are being sued for it.

The Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection filed a lawsuit on behalf of the city, several local businesses and neighborhood associations in October that aims to prohibit 25 groups and individuals who they say participated in unlawful paramilitary activity on August 12 from returning to the city for the same reason.

“Touted as an opportunity to protest the removal of a controversial Confederate statue, the event quickly escalated well beyond such constitutionally protected expression,” says the complaint. “Instead, private military forces transformed an idyllic college town into a virtual combat zone.”

Jason Kessler, the organizer of the white supremacist rally, and anti-racist group Redneck Revolt are the only defendants actively litigating the suit.

Elmer Woodard, who represents Kessler in this case, as well as a bevy of other white supremacists with Unite the Right-related charges in other cases, sat next to Redneck Revolt’s attorney Pam Starsia, who, at one point, regularly attended events with local anti-fascist group Showing Up For Racial Justice.

Outside the courthouse, Starsia, who is working with local civil rights attorney Jeff Fogel on the case, said arguing on the same side as Woodard is “interesting” and “unexpected.”

“We haven’t communicated about the case at all,” she said, though they were making similar arguments in their motions and demurrers—and that’s that neither Kessler nor Redneck Revolt actually participated in paramilitary activity at the rally.

Woodard moved to dismiss Kessler from the lawsuit, which Judge Rick Moore denied, but said he’d take time to consider Woodard’s demurrer that the complaint didn’t include enough incriminating facts against his client.

According to Woodard, the lawsuit alleges that Kessler gave only “one tactical command” that weekend, and it was after the rally was declared an unlawful assembly in Emancipation Park, when Kessler instructed the white nationalists to move to McIntire Park. The suit also alleges that Kessler solicited and facilitated the attendance of the paramilitary groups.

“My gripe is that it’s not specific enough,” said Woodard. “I could invite all the bailiffs to my birthday party. That doesn’t make me a bailiff.”

Georgetown attorney Mary McCord said Woodard “selectively” pulled from the complaint, and that it specifically mentions that Kessler used a website called Discord to “funnel” specific plans to rally attendees and give tips, such as how to build shield walls, and that he organized conference calls that at least one representative of each white supremacist group headed to Charlottesville was required to attend.

The judge will also consider Starsia’s demurrer, which she says is based on evidence that Redneck Revolt is not a paramilitary group. While they do show up to events armed, members don’t wear uniforms or have an organized structure, she said. Unlike some of the groups that came carrying assault rifles while wearing tactical military gear, Redneck Revolt was never confused with the National Guard or other law enforcement, Starsia added.

Pam Starsia. Staff photo

She said Redneck Revolt is set apart from the additional 24 people and groups named in the suit because, “the other defendants are white supremacists” and her clients’ premise is that, “Maybe the Nazis and white supremacists shouldn’t be the only ones with guns.”

The case is scheduled for trial on July 30, and the judge said he’d need a week or two to decide if there are enough factual claims in it to proceed.

“It’s not going to be easy,” he said.

Of the 18 plaintiffs in the suit, McCord said one is the owner of a local toy store who locked customers, including a number of children, in the store on August 12 when an armed militia was standing outside the shop. A restaurant owner alleges that tourists have since inquired about the events of August 12 and asked to see where Heather Heyer died when she was bowled over by a white supremacist in a Dodge Challenger.

Most defendants in the case have settled and agreed not to participate in paramilitary activity in Charlottesville, including the Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia, New York Light Foot Militia, III% People’s Militia of Maryland, and their commanding officers: Christian Yingling, George Curbelo and Gary Sigler. Others who’ve settled are Matthew Heimbach, Elliot Kline (aka Eli Mosley), the Traditionalist Worker Party, Vanguard America, League of the South, its leaders, Michael Tubbs and Spencer Borum, and the swastika-loving National Socialist Movement and its leader, Jeff Schoep.

Updated June 13 at 3:30pm with the names of additional defendants who have settled.

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Federal judge to rule on motions to dismiss in August 12 victims’ case

Jim Kolenich, who represents Jason Kessler, "Crying Nazi" Chris Cantwell, Elliott Kline and multiple others in Sines v. Kessler, addresses the media outside the federal courthouse while his co-counsel Elmer Woodard gives a rare interview to a Washington Post reporter in the background. Staff photo

In a lawsuit filed on behalf of 10 alleged victims of last summer’s deadly August weekend in which hundreds of white supremacists and neo-Nazis descended upon Charlottesville, a federal judge is now considering whether to grant several of the defendants’ motions to dismiss the case.

Attorneys Roberta Kaplan and Karen Dunn claim that 25 individuals and groups named as defendants in the suit premeditatedly conspired to commit violence at the August 12 Unite the Right rally.

Plaintiffs include victims of the Fourth Street car attack, other white supremacist violence and extreme emotional distress, including Elizabeth Sines, Marcus Martin, Marissa Blair, the Reverend Seth Wispelwey and Tyler Magill, who suffered a stroke after being beaten on August 11.

“There is one thing about this case that should be made crystal clear at the outset—the violence in Charlottesville was no accident,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants spent months carefully coordinating their efforts, on the internet and in person.”

The document quotes Unite the Right promotions that stated, “If you want to defend the South and Western civilization from the Jew and his dark-skinned allies, be at Charlottesville on 12 August,” and “Next stop: Charlottesville, VA. Final stop: Auschwitz.”

The suit further quotes one rally organizer Elliott Kline (aka Eli Mosley), who allegedly declared, “We are going to Charlottesville. Our birthright will be ashes and they’ll have to pry it from our cold hands if they want it. They will not replace us without a fight.”

Ohio-based defense attorney Jim Kolenich, who represents Kline and nearly a dozen other high-profile Unite the Righters, including Jason Kessler and “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell, argued in United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia today that Kaplan and Dunn failed to prove that his clients conspired to be violent at the rally.

“There is no specific allegation in those paragraphs,” he said, adding that the only conspiracy was one “to come to Charlottesville and be provocative with their political speech.”

“Yes, they are provocative people,” Kolenich said, and noted that defendant Jeff Schoep, the neo-Nazi at the helm of the National Socialist Movement, has said if he could meet Adolf Hitler today, he’d thank him, as also referenced in the complaint.

Northern Virginia-based John DiNucci, who as of yesterday is representing Richard Spencer in the suit, made the same claim that no specific evidence pointed to Spencer’s premeditated conspiracy for violence. As did Brian Jones, a local lawyer who’s representing Michael Hill, Michael Tubbs and the League of the South.

Mike “Enoch” Peinovich,  the New Yorker who founded The Right Stuff, a right-wing media hub, and podcast The Daily Shoah, is the only defendant representing himself in the case.

“I have many opinions that people may find shocking,” he told Judge Norman Moon, but he also said there’s no evidence that he was planning to be violent at Unite the Right, and though the lawsuit points out that he announced the rally on his podcast and his name appeared on rally fliers, Peinovich said that’s “just First Amendment stuff.”

To combat the claims that the suit’s defendants weren’t the ones who conspired to do harm, Kaplan told the judge, “We carefully chose the 25 defendants we did. …We went after the leaders.”

She said her team is still gathering evidence from sites that alt-right leaders used to plan for the rally, such as Discord, where they often use screen names to conceal their identities.

When she gave the real-life screen name example of “Chef Goyardee,” Peinovich shook with laughter. She also referred to internet conversation about running counterprotesters over with vehicles, which she said the alt-right has since denounced as an “edgy joke.”

“We believe that what we have here is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.

Kolenich, who admitted during the hearing that he doesn’t know which Confederate general’s statue is causing such a ruckus in Charlottesville, said outside the courthouse that the judge should have a ruling within 30 days.

Beside him, his co-counsel gave a rare interview with Washington Post reporter Ian Shapira.

Said Elmer Woodard, the Blairs, Virginia, attorney who’s recently spent quite a bit of time in Charlottesville defending white supremacists at the state level, “I represent murderers, drug dealers and perverts, but I’m not one of them.”

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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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Guilty: First August 12 parking garage beater convicted

Jacob Goodwin, one of four men charged in the beating of DeAndre Harris August 12, was found guilty of malicious wounding. Charlottesville police

 

A Charlottesville jury decided May 1 that a man from Ward, Arkansas, who took part in a brutal beatdown of a local black man in the Market Street Parking Garage on August 12, was guilty of malicious wounding, potentially setting the bar for three other assailants accused of the same crime in the same incident, and who are set to go on trial in the very near future.

In videos from the Unite the Right rally that have since been viewed tens of thousands of times, Jacob Goodwin can be seen wearing all black tactical gear, a helmet, goggles, and two pins—one that said “88,” or code for “Heil Hitler,” and one with the logo of the Traditionalist Worker Party—and carrying a shield when kicking DeAndre Harris multiple times among a gaggle of other white supremacists.

Jurors were visibly disturbed while watching.

“He has yet to express any regret for his actions that day,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania, when asking the jury to consider a jail sentence recommendation. “And I would submit he has none.”

The man identified as a self-described white rights activist in an NBC documentary sat in court wearing a suit and tie and with a long, brown braided ponytail. During his testimony, he said he thought he was being attacked by Harris, and he was using his feet to defend himself.

“To be honest, I was terrified,” he said, adding that he thought he’d be sent to the hospital “terribly hurt,” or that he might even “perish.”

The jury of nine women and three men didn’t buy it, and they recommended giving Goodwin a 10-year sentence with perhaps some time suspended, a $25,000 fine and empathy training. Judge Rick Moore set an official sentencing for August 23.

Goodwin’s mother had her head in her hands when defense attorney Elmer Woodard wrapped up his closing argument, in which he insisted that Goodwin was legally allowed to defend himself from a perceived threat, which protects the Arkansas man from being convicted of malicious wounding. For that specific charge, a prosecutor must show an attempt to kill, maim or disable, or evidence of ill will or spite, according to the attorneys.

“They want you to convict this man because he’s a white man and DeAndre’s a black man,” Woodard said to the jury. The white man’s parents and a handful of other supporters, including Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler, were present for the two-day trial.

So were community members who have aggressively praised Harris for his fight against white supremacy that day in August, and who demanded that Platania drop a malicious wounding charge that Harris was initially given from the event, when he allegedly bashed a man in the head with a Maglite moments before he was beaten to the ground.

Harris’ charge was amended to assault and he was acquitted in Charlottesville General District Court in March.

Woodard argued that while his client was wearing armor, the Maglite and towel Harris carried were the real weapons, and that the man beaten by white supremacists was the true aggressor.

“Body armor’s a defensive thing,” said Woodard. “Nobody ever got beaten to death with body armor.”

And while the defense attorney argued several times that Harris’ most significant injuries, such as the head laceration that required eight stitches, were a result of the other men involved and not Goodwin, Nina-Alice Antony, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney, said they were acting in concert.

“Each person is responsible, not just for his specific action, but the action of the group,” she said, adding that concert of action can happen in an instant, even between people who are unknown to each other. “You don’t have to have a handshake agreement before that.”

The three other men charged with malicious wounding in the parking garage beatdown are Alex Ramos, Daniel Borden and Tyler Watkins Davis. Ramos goes on trial today.

Woodardisms

Attorney Elmer Woodard. Photo Natalie Jacobsen

This Blairs, Virginia, attorney was largely unknown in the Charlottesville area until he began representing a bevy of white supremacists with Unite the Right-related charges, including Jacob Goodwin, “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell and Richard Preston, the KKK leader charged with firing his gun on August 12. Now he’s one of the most talked about defenders in town. Here’s what he had to say at Goodwin’s May 1 trial:

”Gravity applies to DeAndre just like it applies to you and me.”

—on why Harris didn’t fall back down, but rather stood up after the prosecutor argued that Goodwin kicked him so hard that he lifted off the ground

“Why DeAndre, you have upset me.”

—on what Goodwin would have said if he truly felt anger, and was acting out of malice

“Is it concert of action to stand in the Hardee’s line together?”

—on how people who don’t know each other can act together and share similar views

”If it’s raining, you put on a raincoat. If there’s fighting, you put on a helmet.”

—on why Goodwin was wearing tactical gear and a helmet

 

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Booze bracelet: Cantwell’s public intoxication charge violates terms of bond

Crying Nazi Chris Cantwell bids an anti-Semitic adieu to Charlottesville. Photo by Eze Amos

“Drunk,” “loaded” and “liquored up” were all words used in Albemarle County Circuit Court to describe the state of “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell during his Loudoun County arrest last month that nearly landed the self-proclaimed racist back in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.

At an April 25 hearing, Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci said good behavior was a condition of the $25,000 bond Cantwell was granted in December. He has been ordered to stay in Leesburg while he awaits his trial for allegedly pepper spraying two people at the August 11 torch-lit white supremacist rally on UVA Grounds.

The New Hampshire man was allegedly carrying a can of tactical pepper spray when he walked in front of traffic and was nearly struck by two vehicles. He was charged with public swearing and intoxication March 31 in Leesburg, according to Tracci.

Cantwell called it a “gross exaggeration,” and said he was walking from Bunker Sports Cafe to his residence, which is less than a mile away. He entered a 7-Eleven, and he claims he said, “Don’t buy cigarettes, stupid,” aloud to himself in front of police, and was arrested outside the store.

“Did he misbehave and get liquored up? Sure,” said his attorney, Elmer Woodard. “But that doesn’t mean he’s a threat to the public.”

Judge Cheryl Higgins found it to be a violation of his bond, and ordered Cantwell to wear an alcohol monitoring bracelet along with the GPS monitor he already wears. He may not consume any more alcohol while out on bond.

During the hearing, a police officer testified he was contacted by an FBI agent who believed Cantwell had exceeded the 22-mile radius he’s allowed to roam, but Jeff Lenert, a partner at Central Virginia Monitoring, testified that none of the data he collected in March showed Cantwell out of his permitted zone.

Tracci also argued that Cantwell was using social media to threaten and intimidate others, including the victims of his pending criminal case.

The prosecutor showed the judge a photo that Cantwell reposted on the web of a little girl who appeared to be protesting gun violence at the March for Our Lives, and who held a sign that said, “Am I next?” Cantwell’s online response? “One can hope.”

Another post referred to gassing “kikes and trannies.”

“I make jokes for a living,” Cantwell told the judge. “It’s what I do. I’m a professional entertainer.”

Woodard called Emily Gorcenski to the stand, who is a victim in the pepper spray accusation. He asked her to state her name and immediately excused her.

Higgins was quick to reprimand Woodard, and the attorney said he was simply proving that Gorcenski wasn’t too intimidated by Cantwell to come to his hearing.

Said Higgins, “Maybe because there are four bailiffs here.”

She ordered that Cantwell may not contact the victims in the case, refer to them on the web or use direct or indirect intimidation or threat tactics.

Woodard said the order infringed on Cantwell’s First Amendment rights and noted that Gorcenski is permitted to continue posting anything she wants about Cantwell. The attorney asked his client if there are also people who criticize him online.

Said Cantwell, “That would be the understatement of the century.”

Higgins also granted Tracci’s motion to quash Woodard’s request for all electronic data and conversations between the two victims in Cantwell’s case. The judge called it a “fishing expedition” and ordered the complainants to only provide the photos and videos they used to identify Cantwell as their attacker.

His trial is set for August 13.

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Judge takes parking under advisement in August 12 case

Jacob Goodwin, one of four men charged in the beating of DeAndre Harris August 12, was found guilty of malicious wounding. Charlottesville police

An attorney for an Arkansas man who can be seen kicking DeAndre Harris in the face in videos of the August 12 Market Street Parking Garage brawl at the summer’s Unite the Right rally is now asking for a change of venue for his client’s upcoming trial.

Elmer Woodard—the lawyer from Blairs who represents Jacob Goodwin, as well as “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell and KKK leader Richard Preston—says Goodwin can’t get a fair trial in Charlottesville.

For one, because jurors are likely to park in the closest garage, which also happens to be the scene of the crime.

And if a judge bars them from parking there, their second choice could lead them to Charlottesville Circuit Court up Heather Heyer Way—the street recently renamed in honor of the 32-year-old woman who was killed on the day of Goodwin’s alleged offense.

“I think that’s a huge problem in seating a jury,” Woodard told the judge. Jurors are not legally allowed to visit a crime scene outside of the court’s control, he added.

But a parking problem isn’t the only reason he said his client can’t be tried here.

Woodard noted that media coverage of Goodwin often mentions Heyer’s death, “inflating” that the man who came to court in a gray and white-striped jail jumpsuit, with a brown beard and long, braided ponytail, was involved. Charlottesville residents aren’t able to be impartial about whether he should be found guilty of malicious wounding, said the attorney.

There’s also the potential for “sleeper activists,” he said—a phrase that Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler’s attorney, Mike Hallahan, said in a motion to change the venue of Kessler’s perjury trial. These people, the lawyers say, would intentionally try to be seated on the jury to convict unfavorable defendants.

Woodard said he no longer pays attention to what’s reported in local media about his clients.

“I had to stop reading [it] because my eyes crossed,” he said.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Nina-Alice Antony agreed with Woodard that jurors parking in the garage on Market Street could be problematic, but said the defense’s argument that seating a jury would be difficult is irrelevant.

“It’s not whether seating the jury will be difficult, it’s whether the court can seat an impartial jury,” she said. During the voir dire portion of the trial, Woodard will have the opportunity to examine and interview potential jurors, and motion to strike individuals he deems unfit from the jury pool.

Judge Rick Moore agreed that he could seat an impartial jury, but took the motion under advisement to consider the parking dilemma. He also denied a defense motion to exclude evidence.

The evidence in question was a surveillance video of the attack, which plays at 15 frames per second, while all other known videos that will be admitted during the trial are 30 frames per second.

Woodard opened his argument on that motion in an unusual way. In his initial statement, he only actually voiced every other word to the judge, or half the sentence.

He said a video that plays at 15 frames per second shows only half of what happened and would be misleading to a jury, as it was misleading to the judge when he spoke every other word of a sentence.

“You didn’t mislead me,” said Moore. “I just didn’t know what you were saying.”

Goodwin’s two-day jury trial is scheduled to begin April 30.

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Goodwin motions denied in DeAndre Harris attacks

Jacob Goodwin, one of four men charged in the beating of DeAndre Harris August 12, was found guilty of malicious wounding. Charlottesville police

An Arkansas man whose own attorney admits he kicked DeAndre Harris in the Market Street Garage August 12 filed two motions to exclude evidence of the brutal beating because he claimed the serious injuries to Harris happened before the kicks.

Jacob Goodwin, 23, of Ward, Arkansas, was arrested in November and charged with malicious wounding, a felony that carries up to 20 years in prison and a minimum five-year sentence.

His attorney from Blairs, Elmer Woodard, spent most of the March 7 hearing showing video to Judge Rick Moore to establish that assailants such as Tyler Davis, the 49-year-old Florida man arrested January 24, and others identified as “Salmon Shirt” and “White Helmet” were the ones who seriously injured Harris, and that Harris’ broken wrist and head gash that required staples happened before Goodwin came on the scene to deliver a few kicks to his stomach and legs.

Harris “attacked Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Goodwin defended himself,” said Woodard. He contended that a list of Harris’ injuries was “unbiased testimony from medical specialists,” and did not include any bruises on his stomach. “That’s not malicious wounding,” he said. “This shouldn’t come into evidence against him because it happened before he came in.”

Moore denied Woodard’s motion to exclude that evidence and said it would be up to a jury to determine whether Goodwin caused Harris’ injuries. “This is a melee. He’s clearly kicked by your client multiple times,”  said Moore. “I can’t find this evidence irrelevant.”

Prosecutor Nina Antony said the commonwealth is proceeding on a theory that the assault was “concert of action by a mob” that Goodwin was part of, even if Harris’ injuries were caused by others.

“You can’t say it’s concert of action” when it’s people defending themselves,” argued Woodard.

Moore denied Woodard’s motions “based on the videos I’ve seen,” he said. Goodwin is scheduled for a jury trial April 30.

Woodard is also defending other white supremacists arrested in August 12 weekend events, including Baltimore Confederate White Knights of the KKK imperial wizard Richard Preston, charged with firing a gun after an unlawful assembly was declared in Emancipation Park, and “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell.

Woodard also represents Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler in his March 6 civil suit against the city for denying his August 12 anniversary permit.