White Supremacists Issue Their Plea

California residents are in court over the Charlottesville rally
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 4, 2019 9:45 AM CDT
2 White Supremacists Plead Guilty
In this Aug. 12, 2017 file photo, white nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va.   (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

Two members of a white supremacist group pleaded guilty Friday to federal rioting charges in connection with a white nationalist rally in Virginia and political rallies in California, the AP reports. Benjamin Drake Daley, 26, of Redondo Beach, Calif., and Michael Paul Miselis, 30, of Lawndale, Calif., each pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to riot. Daley and Miselis are the last of four members of the Rise Above Movement indicted in Virginia to plead guilty. The militant white supremacist group was known for having members who train in mixed martial arts street-fighting techniques. Two other members of the group—Cole White and Thomas Gillen—each previously pleaded guilty to the same charge.

All four men admitted they punched and kicked demonstrators who showed up to protest against white nationalists during a torch-lit march at the University of Virginia and the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville in August 2017. The men were indicted in October on two charges: traveling to incite riots and conspiracy to riot. Prosecutors said photos and video footage showed the men attacking counterprotesters in Charlottesville and also participating in violence at political rallies the same year in Huntington Beach and Berkeley, Calif. Each man faces up to five years in prison on the charge, but defendants often get less than the maximum under federal sentencing guidelines.

(More white supremacist stories.)

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