Grand jury indicts torch-wielding marchers from 2017 incident in Charlottesville

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch

Nearly six years after marching across the Grounds of the University of Virginia carrying flaming torches and shouting phrases including “Blood and soil” and “Jews will not replace us,” some of those marchers appear to have been hit with felony indictments for violating Virginia law against burning to intimidate.

“These indictments were issued as part of a criminal investigation that is active and ongoing,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley said in a statement announcing the actions by an Albemarle County grand jury, which has jurisdiction over UVa’s Central Grounds. Hingeley, who declined to respond to inquiries on Monday from The Daily Progress, did not name the criminal suspects or say how many there were.

Likewise, Albemarle Circuit Court clerk Jon Zug was tight-lipped about the charges, which he said were sealed. “I cannot release sealed indictments until I’ve gotten confirmation that the people have been served,” Zug told The Daily Progress. “At that time, I’ll be able the release the names.”

Ever since the Unite the Right rally-turned-riot on Aug. 12, 2017, which brought hordes of neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates onto the streets of Charlottesville and claimed the life of anti-racist counter-protester Heather Heyer, there have been efforts to punish the racists. The murder conviction of James Alex Fields Jr., the Ohio man who struck Heyer with his Dodge Challenger, was not widely controversial. But the question of whether to criminally charge the torch-bearing marchers who traveled to Grounds the day before has proved more divisive.

Read more: https://richmond.com/news/state-and-regional/crime-and-courts/grand-jury-indicts-torch-wielding-marchers-from-2017-incident-in-charlottesville/article_5351d887-7ecd-5578-b5a9-49913fceb180.html

---

Good.

From WaPo (some names that were just unsealed) -

Grand jury indicts torch carriers in 2017 Charlottesville rally
By Salvador Rizzo
April 18, 2023 at 5:16 p.m. EDT


At least three men who marched with blazing tiki torches at the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville are now facing criminal charges, according to indictments unsealed this week.

A grand jury in Virginia indicted “multiple individuals” who carried torches at the Unite the Right rally in August 2017, Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney James Hingeley said in a statement.

Indictments had been unsealed Tuesday for three defendants who were extradited from their home states: Tyler Bradley Dykes of Bluffton, S.C.; Dallas Medina of Ravenna, Ohio; and Will Zachary Smith of Nacona, Tex. Officials said additional indictments remain under seal.

Prosecutors allege the torch carriers violated a rarely enforced criminal statute, which makes it a crime to burn objects with intent to intimidate, when they marched around the University of Virginia campus on Aug. 11, 2017, while chanting “You will not replace us” and the Nazi slogan “Blood and soil.”

(snip)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/04/18/charlottesville-white-supremacist-tiki-torch-indictments/

[mcar]

1. About damn time

[Indykatie]

2. Justice Delayed is Better Than No Justice At All.... But 7 Years Later?

[The Grand Illuminist]

3. What is the statute of limitation in VA?

nt

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Some charges are 1 yr, others 2 yrs, and the rest 5 yrs EXCEPT

any felonies - e.g. (apparently not inclusive of all possible), - https://www.findlaw.com/state/virginia-law/virginia-criminal-statute-of-limitations-laws.html

State Virginia
Topic Criminal Statute of Limitations
Definition The length of time for which prosecution proceedings can be commenced for a crime.
Code Section Va. Code sec. 19.2-8

Felonies

Most felonies, including: murder, rape, forcible sodomy, object sexual penetration, aggravated sexual battery, infected sexual battery: none

Attempted felonies listed above: none

[The Grand Illuminist]

5. Now we have a possible unfortunate situation

The charges will more than likely be dropped due to state SoL.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Well the article indicated the indictments were for felonies

Then-Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci asserted that Virginia’s law banning burning as intimidation — written to prevent the Ku Klux Klan from burning crosses to terrorize Black people — asserted that he couldn’t prosecute because the law asserts that an “object” must be burned.

However, University of Virginia law professor Anne Coughlin noted that some of the torch-wielders surrounded and then struck some of the counter-protesters gathered at the statue of Thomas Jefferson in front of the Rotunda on Grounds on Aug. 11, 2017. Coughlin has long argued that failing to bring charges was dereliction of duty.

“I still stand by what I said then, with nothing new to add,” Coughlin told The Daily Progress on Monday in an email.

Virginia has no statute of limitations on felony charges. Conviction under the Virginia Code is rated as Class 6 felony and can bring a penalty up to five years in jail.

And the code notes that if there is battery based on race, etc, then it would be a felony -

§ 18.2-57. Assault and battery; penalty.

A. Any person who commits a simple assault or assault and battery is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor, and if the person intentionally selects the person against whom a simple assault is committed because of his race, religious conviction, gender, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, color, or national origin, the penalty upon conviction shall include a term of confinement of at least six months.

B. However, if a person intentionally selects the person against whom an assault and battery resulting in bodily injury is committed because of his race, religious conviction, gender, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, color, or national origin, the person is guilty of a Class 6 felony, and the penalty upon conviction shall include a term of confinement of at least six months.

(snip)

https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title18.2/chapter4/section18.2-57/

So it could be they want to go that route. And I know there were numerous videos that went viral showing some of the attacks on counter-protestors (let alone what happened to Heather Heyer) - and apparently of those not already charged for the most notorious incidents.

[orangecrush]

26. Welcome to DU

[Novara]

6. THAT TOOK SIX YEARS?????

Are you fucking kidding me?

[cstanleytech]

8. Its not an effort to punish them its an effort to hold them accountable.

[Scrivener7]

9. Six damn years.

[Ford_Prefect]

10. This is gonna be interesting. It should lead to more related to who coordinated the events and set

things in motion.

[NullTuples]

11. Cudos to whatever official kept this alive through the Trump years...

I would imagine there was pressure to drop the cases or make them quietly go away one way or another.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. From the WaPo article

(snip)

Burning objects with intent to intimidate is punishable in Virginia by one to five years in prison. “You have to show that the conduct created a reasonable apprehension of death or bodily harm,” said Anne M. Coughlin, a U-Va. School of Law professor who for years has called on prosecutors to file charges against the torch carriers. “There is very strong evidence that these folks were here for the purpose of terrifying our Jewish friends and neighbors — people of color.”

The law was enacted in 2002 partly in response to the Ku Klux Klan, which was known for burning crosses in public to scare the Black population, and it is “tailor-made” for a criminal case against the torch carriers at the rally, Coughlin said. But the case took nearly six years to get to the grand jury. Hingeley’s predecessor, former Albemarle County commonwealth’s attorney Robert N. Tracci, declined to seek charges against the torch carriers.

Tracci wrote in an opinion article from 2019 that under the Virginia law on burning objects, “The question could arise — and would in criminal law — as to whether carrying a burning torch falls within the definitional scope of burning an object.” Tracci could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

“He was voted out of office,” Coughlin said. “The voters replaced him, and one of Jim Hingeley’s promises — if you look at his campaign material, he said that he thought these charges should be brought.”

(snip)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/04/18/charlottesville-white-supremacist-tiki-torch-indictments/

[NullTuples]

13. "Robert N. Tracci, declined to seek charges against the torch carriers...He was voted out of office"

We must never allow 2017-2021 to happen again. We'll be living with the damage for decades.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. +infinity

[Cha]

19. TY Very Enlightening!

So that's why it took so long?

[BumRushDaShow]

24. Yup

The prosecutor (who was later voted out of office) opted not to prosecute, apparently not considering their use of tiki torches in their "march" as "burning something". It's one thing walking around with a glass-enclosed (wicked) flame-lit lantern, a candle, or even an activated butane lighter. But I expect something more than that with an open flame is probably borderline, if not, illegal, given those are fueled with an oil.

And this despite the fact that their carrying around what is normally a pole meant to be planted "stationary" in the ground, symbolically invokes the use of "torches" that were often used to commit arson on the homes/businesses of those groups that the KKK was known to intimidate and attack (let alone became a reminder of the imagery of the burning cross, which was a hallmark of that vile organization).

[Cha]

27. TY, BRDS.. I appreciate this. 🤷‍♀️

[BumRushDaShow]

28. YW Cha

[niyad]

14. Sandy and Richard Riccardi's "Tiki torch nazis" is running in my head again.

[TeamProg]

16. Awesome. nt

[wnylib]

17. So glad to hear this. It's long past time to make

white supremacists and Neo Nazis know that we will not tolerate acts like this.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

18. Some of Trump's "Very good people"

[Fiendish Thingy]

20. "Burning to Intimidate"?

WTF does that even mean?

[Martin68]

22. The law was passed to prosecute the Klan for burning crosses in front of peoples' houses

- a terrorist act of intimidation.

[Fiendish Thingy]

23. Ah, Makes sense.

I guess those weasels in the KKK needed a very specific statute in order to put them in jail.

[Aristus]

30. It was probably around the time the statute was passed that the KKK started

insisting that they weren't burning the crosses, they were "illuminating" them.

[Martin68]

21. As a Charlottesville resident, this is great news. Finally.

[steventh]

25. Better late than never.

I'm very pleased that legal experts figured out a way to hold the tiki torch bearing individuals accountable. I hope this prosecution gives others pause before they pull crap like the tiki boys did in Charlotesville. I sure wouldn't want such ugly demonstrations in my town.

[electric_blue68]

29. Good! Ty BRDS for the info. It's not like they were carrying flashlights, and camp lanterns!

Tikis as stated are usually planted in the ground.


It's like a movie where the towns folk head off for mayhem with "pitchforks and torches", except it echoes real life experienced by a certain amount of Black people, possibly Jews in the (not so distant) past. Perhaps still, sporadically with that bag' o' sewage (drumphf) giving "permission" to the racists to act more openly again. Hideous!

[Mysterian]

31. Glad to hear about this

Enforce the laws or don't bother having them.