The purported founder of a Southern California militant supremacist group must remain behind bars for now, with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determining that a federal judge who ordered him released wrongly determined he wasn’t potentially dangerous or a flight risk. The appellate judges, in a written order released this week, overruled U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney’s decision to release Robert Rundo, the Huntington Beach man accused of founding the Rise Above Movement and recruiting and training others to attack political rivals at rallies in Orange County, San Bernardino County and Northern California. The 9th Circuit judges have not yet decided whether to overrule Carney’s decision to throw out the federal criminal charges Rundo is accused of, including conspiracy and being involved in riots. Carney said federal prosecutors had selectively prosecuted Rundo and other suspected “far-right, white supremacist nationalists” but ignored the actions of members of “Antifa and other extremist, far-left groups.” Carney ordered Rundo released immediately after dismissing his charges. Rundo was briefly free before federal prosecutors persuaded the appeals court to temporarily order his re-arrest. The ruling this week keeps Rundo in custody. In releasing Rundo, the appellate judges wrote, Carney ignored “mountains of evidence (including) photographs and videos of Rundo physically assaulting people, and posts on social media where Rundo gloated about having used violence to harm people.” The appellate ruling also notes that Rundo previously “evaded the government for years by using fake passports and other identification (and) was only before the district court in this case because he was successfully extradited from Romania.”
via ocregister: Purported founder of violent Orange County supremacist group won’t be freed from lockup for now
siehe auch: White supremacist leader’s Berkeley rioting charges reinstated by appeals court. A federal appeals court reinstated rioting charges Thursday against the leader of a white-supremacist group and one of his followers for violence in Berkeley and three other cities in 2017, rejecting a judge’s conclusion that prosecutors had unfairly targeted them while sparing their left-wing antagonists. Yellow Dog Productions/Getty Images A federal appeals court reinstated rioting charges Thursday against the leader of a white-supremacist group and one of his followers for violence in Berkeley and three other cities in 2017, rejecting a judge’s conclusion that prosecutors had unfairly targeted them while sparing their left-wing antagonists. Robert Rundo, founder of the Rise Above Movement, and Robert Boman have been charged with rioting and conspiracy by recruiting members, training them for violent combat, making travel arrangements and attacking foes of then-President Donald Trump. The clashes occurred in Berkeley, Huntington Beach, San Bernardino and Charlottesville, Va., where a counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was fatally struck by a car driven by another far-right participant, James Fields, who was convicted of murder. Rundo and Boman were not charged in Heyer’s death. In Berkeley, Rundo brought several hundred followers to a pro-Trump rally in March 2017, and police said they saw him punching a counter-protester in the head. They said he refused to stop, and after an officer knocked him to the ground, Rundo punched the officer twice in the head before being subdued. An FBI agent’s affidavit said videos showed Rundo slugging counter-protesters in the head at the Huntington Beach rally in March 2017.