A woman arrested on three charges, including felony assault of a law enforcement officer at the July 8 KKK rally, has pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor.
Jordan Romeo was protesting the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Justice Park when she allegedly assaulted a city cop and City Council critic John Heyden.
She was also charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, to which the 28-year-old Roanoke resident pleaded guilty in Charlottesville General District Court on January 19.
“Despite the commonwealth’s expected evidence in this case, the arresting officer that was assaulted agreed with a sentence involving an alternative to incarceration,” said a press release from Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania released that day.
Prosecutor Nina-Alice Antony said in court that the officer agreed to nolle
prosequi the felony assault charge in exchange for Romeo’s guilty plea of disorderly conduct. At the request of Heyden, who “would like to put the matter behind him,” the misdemeanor assault charge was also dismissed.
Romeo was sentenced to 105 days in jail, with all suspended on the condition that she complete 80 hours of community service and stay on good behavior for two years.
“Allegations of assaultive behavior directed towards law enforcement officers engaged in the lawful performance of their duties are extremely significant events and will be investigated and prosecuted as the serious offenses that they are,” said Platania in the statement.
Jordan Romeo. Courtesy of the Charlottesville Police Department
A woman arrested on three charges, including felony assault of a law enforcement officer at the July 8 KKK rally, has pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor.
Jordan Romeo was protesting the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Justice Park when she allegedly assaulted a city cop and City Council critic John Heyden.
She was also charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, to which the 28-year-old Roanoke resident pleaded guilty in Charlottesville General District Court on January 19.
“Despite the commonwealth’s expected evidence in this case, the arresting officer that was assaulted agreed with a sentence involving an alternative to incarceration,” said a press release from Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania released that day.
Prosecutor Nina-Alice Antony said in court that the officer agreed to nolle
prosequi the felony assault charge in exchange for Romeo’s guilty plea of disorderly conduct. At the request of Heyden, who “would like to put the matter behind him,” the misdemeanor assault charge was also dismissed.
Romeo was sentenced to 105 days in jail, with all suspended on the condition that she complete 80 hours of community service and stay on good behavior for two years.
“Allegations of assaultive behavior directed towards law enforcement officers engaged in the lawful performance of their duties are extremely significant events and will be investigated and prosecuted as the serious offenses that they are,” said Platania in the statement.
Imperial wizard Christopher Barker's bond on a North Carolina stabbing charge doesn't allow rallies in Virginia.
Caswell County Sheriff's Department
The head of the Loyal White Knights of the KKK could decide to stay home from the rally he called in Charlottesville July 8 because his bond for a pending stabbing charge prohibits him from leaving North Carolina.
Christopher Barker was arrested in December on the eve of a parade to celebrate the election of Donald Trump after a fellow klansman was stabbed in his Yanceyville, North Carolina, home. Barker was charged with aiding and abetting assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury, a charge that carries up to 19 years.
He was supposed to be in court June 26, but his case was continued to the week of July 24, according to Caswell County District Attorney Jacqueline Perez. His $75,000 bond restricts him to Caswell and Rockingham counties in North Carolina.
An appearance in Charlottesville July 8 “would be a violation of his release conditions,” says Perez. “We would have to inform the court. His bond could be modified or revoked.”
If spotted in Justice Park, Charlottesville police would notify North Carolina authorities, says Lieutenant Steve Upman, but Barker wouldn’t be arrested unless a warrant were issued by North Carolina.
“It’s my understanding he’s not coming,” says Upman.
Barker, who earlier said he was coming to protest the city’s votes to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee and rename Lee and Jackson parks, had not returned a call to the Loyal Whites hotline at press time.
City councilors Kathy Galvin, Bob Fenwick, Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy and Mayor Mike Signer are among the city officials who gathered to reassure the public safety is paramount.
Staff photo
The Loyal White Knights of the KKK is a tiny, disintegrating faction led by a felon facing a charge for abetting in attempted murder, who may not be able to legally leave North Carolina for the July 8 rally his group plans to hold in Justice Park. Yet such is the legacy of terror and hate associated with the Klan that Charlottesville has mobilized to deflect a visit from an organization that Mayor Mike Signer says is “already in the trash bin of history.”
Some argue that the impending August 12 “Unite the Right” March on Charlottesville with its modern-day white nationalism cloaked as the alt-right is the bigger threat.
But this year, rather than gearing up for July 4, Charlottesville is gearing up for July 8, in the hope that it will be “remembered as a day of unity, not a day of hate and fear,” said city police Chief Al Thomas at a June 20 press conference, one of several events that have been held to announce other activities and to encourage citizens to ignore the Loyal White Knights.
On the agenda are a dialogue at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center in the morning, a picnic at IX Art Park and a musical event at the Pavilion. Details for those events are still being worked out.
At the press conference, a dozen city officials and leaders stressed public safety and unity. Thomas says Albemarle and UVA police and the city sheriff’s office will join the Charlottesville Police Department in its public safety ops.
He also noted that police will make sure the exercise of free speech is enabled, “no matter how much we may disagree with the message.”
Advises Thomas, “If you have concerns about the KKK rally in the park, my advice is simple: Stay home.”
Signer said, “On July 8, I will not be going within a football field of Justice Park.” Nor will City Councilor Kristin Szakos.
Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy, who has been targeted with threats toward him and his family, said, “We’re not going to let these idiots come here and define us.” He urged those who must confront the Klan to not engage with them. “Don’t get into a shouting match with people whose minds are not going to change.”
A week earlier on June 13, more than 150 people attended a “So Now What” community forum at Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church to discuss the impending appearance of the North Carolina-based Loyal White Knights.
Organizer Bellamy, along with City Manager Maurice Jones, Signer and Thomas, as well as members of the African-American community, spoke out on how to respond to the robe-wearing group that has terrorized blacks for more than 150 years.
Most urged ignoring the Loyal White Knights, and many black community members said they would not be attending. All urged restraint by locals who do show up to offer an unwelcome mat to Charlottesville.
“I don’t feel the need to go scream at these people,” said Yolanda Jones. She advised self-mastery and wisdom to those who did attend, and said white people “can be an interface in ways people of color can’t.”
Thomas acknowledged the emotion and pain of having the Klan come to town, and said city police can manage them. “Quite candidly, our main concern is not the KKK,” he said. “It’s being in a situation where local citizens make poor choices and we have to step in.”
The KKK “does not define this community,” he said. “Don’t take the bait.”
Thomas, who came here from Lexington, which has had its own share of confrontations over Confederate symbols, including the removal of the rebel flag from public property, said he’s dealt with the Klan before. And when it wanted to march through the black community, people came out and turned their backs to the white supremacist marchers, “the most powerful symbolism you can imagine,” he said.
Bellamy presented peaceful options for July 8. And for those who do want to show up at Justice Park, he suggested protesters wear black, lock arms and turn their backs on the Loyal White Knights—without engaging with them.
He made another plea for people who want to get involved: Volunteer for city and county boards. He distributed a sheet to the audience with options for July 8. And on the other side of the paper, he had a list of openings that allow other ways for voices to be heard in the community.
“It’s easy to go out with 300 people and yell at the Klan,” he said. “It’s harder to get involved on boards.”
Added Bellamy, “If you truly want to do something, here’s your chance.”
Charlottesville has been the scene of protests about the removal of Confederate monuments over the past year, most notably a tiki-torch rally led by white nationalist/UVA alum Richard Spencer May 13.
Imperial Wizard Chris Barker has lost Loyal White Knights members since his arrest for involvement in a December stabbing, according to Klan watchers.
Submitted photo
Pelham, North Carolina, is just across the border from Danville, Virginia, which sports one of the largest Confederate flags in the country flying beside U.S. 29. There’s not much going on in Pelham, but it does have a post office, and a P.O. box there is the address of the Loyal White Knights of the KKK, the Ku Klux Klan group that’s planning a rally in Charlottesville July 8.
The Loyal Whites are led by Imperial Wizard Christopher Barker, who, before he can come here, has a June 26 court date in Yanceyville, North Carolina, for aiding in the stabbing of a Klan colleague at Barker’s house in December, on the eve of a rally celebrating the victory of Donald Trump.
Currently his $75,000 bond prohibits him from leaving Caswell and Rockingham counties in North Carolina.
William Hagen, California grand dragon, and Christopher Barker, Loyal White Knights imperial wizard, were charged in a December stabbing of a third Klansman in Barker’s home. Caswell County Sheriff’s Office
After leaving a message on the Knights’ hotline, C-VILLE Weekly received a call from a man identifying himself as Robert Jones, grand dragon of North Carolina.
Jones says he’s 41 and a landscaper. He declined to say how many members the Loyal White Knights have across the country, because that’s something only the imperial wizard—Barker—would know. Nor would Jones reveal how many members are in North Carolina.
“It’s an invisible empire,” he says. “We don’t tell the numbers.”
He estimates between 100 and 150 will attend the event at Jackson Park, which was recently renamed Justice Park.
“Some members will be wearing robes,” he says, noting that it’s illegal in most states to wear the face-covering hoods. Others will wear black military garb. And many will be packing heat, he says.
Presumably that doesn’t include felons like Barker, who reportedly has a lengthy rap sheet and is alleged to be an FBI informant.
The reason for coming to Charlottesville? “We think it’s a shame they’re erasing our Confederate history, our white history,” says Jones. “It’s a spit in our face to take down our monument.”
In the alt-right, white nationalist world, the KKK is seen as bottom feeders. UVA grad Richard Spencer, who led the tiki-torch march in Charlottesville May 13, told the Washington Post in a text, “The KKK is not my scene.”
Jones says he doesn’t know who Spencer is or care what he says. “We don’t try to be more liberal. I don’t want to be around a black person, Mexicans, Jews, Asians, Arabs. I don’t care about any other race.” He quotes Leviticus to justify separation of the races.
And he has no problem being called a racist. “I prefer being called a racist because I’m proud about my race,” Jones declares.
Jones is unperturbed about Barker’s rap sheet or involvement in the stabbing. “There’s always going to be fights, no matter what organization you’re in,” he says.
“I live Klan, I breathe Klan,” he says. And while other races are not welcome to join, white women are. Barker’s wife, Amanda, is the gang’s “imperial kommander.”
James Moore is the grand dragon of Virginia. Youtube
After the Charlottesville rally, members will have a cross burning—Jones calls it a “cross lighting”—on a farm that belongs to Virginia Grand Dragon James Moore, according to Jones. The public is not invited.
Two days after chatting with Jones, C-VILLE received a call from Mike, who refused to give his last name, but said he’s the grand dragon of North Carolina—the same title Jones claimed. Mike, 60, says he lives near Pelham, but he doesn’t know Jones.
“Until you’re a member of the Klan, nobody knows anybody,” says Mike, even, apparently, in tiny Pelham.
Mike says the Loyal White Knights are white separatists. “We don’t hate anyone—blacks, Jews. Well, I hate Jews.” Race mixing and transgendering are also on his hate list because they’re “not God’s law.”
Mike says he’s probably going to wear his robe and hood, and the grand dragon’s attire is green.
Both Jones and Mike say they don’t anticipate any violence, but if it happens, it will be from the “antifascists and Communists,” says Jones.
Mike is unable to clear up the mystery of Robert Jones but says he’ll have Imperial Wizard Barker give C-VILLE a call.
Within a few minutes, the phone rings, and it’s…Robert Jones, who denies that he’s Barker. He says the reason Mike didn’t know him is because, “We’ve got five or six Mikes” answering the hotline. “He must be new,” adds “Jones.”
Who is that masked man?
Journalist Nate Thayer has written extensively about the KKK for his blog and for Vice, an online magazine. “That’s almost certainly Barker,” he says of the phone calls from Jones, which is a favorite alias of Loyal Whites because Robert Jones was the KKK grand dragon of North Carolina in the ’60s. Or it could be “James Moore,” the alias of a Sandston, Virginia, member named James Seay, says Thayer.
The Loyal White Knights have lost about 80 percent of their membership since the stabbing incident in December, according to Thayer.
The July 8 appearance in Charlottesville “is an odd date to pick” because there’s another major Klan event on that date in Kentucky, he says. “I’d be surprised if 10 people show up.”
Thayer calls Barker the “teflon imperial wizard” because “he’s been arrested over 50 times with a dozen felonies” and isn’t in jail. Thayer alleges Barker is a confidential informant for the FBI.
Barker talks to the media, says Thayer, because the Loyal White Knights are “a personal business for Chris Barker,” and every time they announce a public event, they get publicity and new members call the hotline.
“These guys all have guns,” he says. “They hate black people and gay people, and these antifas, they really hate. If these two sides get together, there will be violence.”
Carla Hill is an investigative researcher for the Center for Extremism, and she says of the 40 Klan groups in the U.S., the Loyal White Knights are one of the largest and most active Klans. It’s also one of the older ones but it’s only been around since 2011 because there’s so much turnover, she says.
Since the December arrests and “drunken brawl” that “further damaged Barker’s reputation,” along with the rumor he’s an FBI informant, she estimates the Loyal Whites membership is down to between 50 and 70 people.
The group has aligned itself with neo-Nazis, she says, but did not show up at last fall’s National Socialist Movement event.
Flyering, an activity that takes one person, is a regular endeavor of the Loyal Whites, and of 39 KKK distributions that have been reported in the country this year, 16 were done by the Pelham organization, says Hill.
The group picked Charlottesville “because of all the alt-right stuff going on here,” says Hill. “They try to glom onto more mainstream events.”
Says Hill, “This is a group that’s really struggling. Unless they get new members, I can’t imagine it’s going to be an impressive showing.”
Chief Al Thomas said it's not the Klan he's worried about, it's the local response.
Staff photo
By the time around 130 people crowded into the fellowship hall at Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church June 13, organizers moved the “So Now What” community forum into the sanctuary to accommodate the mass of people coming out on a rainy evening to discuss the impending appearance of the North Carolina-based Loyal White Knights of the KKK.
Organizer Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy, along with City Manager Maurice Jones, Mayor Mike Signer and police Chief Al Thomas, as well as members of the African American community, spoke out on how to respond to the robe-wearing group that has terrorized blacks for over 150 years.
Most urged ignoring the Loyal White Knights, who will gather at 3pm July 8 at Justice Park at Court Square, and many black community members said they would not be attending. All urged restraint by locals who do show up to offer an unwelcome mat to Charlottesville.
“I don’t feel the need to go scream at these people,” said Yolanda Jones. She advised self-mastery and wisdom to those who did attend, and said white people “can be an interface in ways people of color can’t.”
Chief Thomas acknowledged the emotion and pain of having the Klan come to town, and said city police can manage them. “Quite candidly, our main concern is not the KKK,” he said. “It’s being in a situation where local citizens make poor choices and we have to step in.”
The KKK “does not define this community,” he said. “Don’t take the bait.”
Thomas, who came here from Lexington, which has had its own share of confrontations over Confederate symbols, including the removal of the rebel flag from public property, said he’s dealt with the Klan before. And when it wanted to march through the black community, people came out and turned their backs to the white supremacist marchers, “the most powerful symbolism you can imagine,” he said.
Bellamy presented peaceful options for July 8: a counter rally and community event at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and at Sprint Pavilion. And for those who do want to show up at Justice Park, he suggested protesters wear black, lock arms and turn their backs on the Loyal White Knights—without engaging with them.
He made another plea for people who want to get involved: Volunteer for city and county boards. And he had a list of opening that allow other ways for voices to be heard in the community.
“It’s easy to go out with 300 people and yell at the Klan,” he said. “It’s harder to get involved on boards.”
Added Bellamy, “If you truly want to do something, here’s your chance.”
Charlottesville has been the scene of protests about the removal of Confederate monuments over the past year, most notably at a tiki-torch rally led by white nationalist/UVA alum Richard Spencer May 13. An alt-right coalition plans an August 12 event.
