SAN DIEGO — Prosecutors on Monday charged seven people, whom they described as ANTIFA, in connection with eight assaults that occurred in J anuary during a Pacific Beach “Patriot March” by Trump supporters.
Those arraigned Monday in San Diego Superior Court were among a group arrested Thursday in raids by police officers and sheriff’s deputies across Southern California. Prosecutors allege the defendants “are self-identified to be affiliated with Anti-fascists or Antifa,” according to a criminal complaint, and began organizing themselves — with one group originating in San Diego and the other in Los Angeles — a week before the pro-Trump rally.
The case is believed to be one of the first to use conspiracy charges — in this case conspiracy to commit riot — to target alleged members of Antifa.
Several of the attacks detailed in the complaint appear to match incidents that were recorded and shared online, such as a video of Antifa pepper spraying a dog and its owner. Prosecutors allege that act was committed by Jeremy Jonathan White, 39, one of the defendants who remained jailed Monday in lieu of $200,000 bail. White faces charges of conspiracy, assault with a deadly weapon, use of tear gas not in self-defense and animal cruelty.
A Los Angeles-based videographer captured a nearly two-minute-long attack by Antifa involving the use of pepper spray, a wooden folding chair thrown through the air, sticks, punches and kicks.
Those arraigned Monday were White; Luis Francisco Mora, 30; Joseph Austin Gaskins, 21; Faraz Martin Talab, 27; Bryan Rivera, 21; Brian Lightfoot, 25; and Jesse Merel Cannon, 31.
Also facing charges, according to a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office, are Alexander Akridge-Jacobs, 31; Christian Martinez, 23; and Samuel Howard Ogden, 24.
A $250,000 arrest warrant has been issued for Erich Louis Yach, 37.
“Video evidence analysis shows that overwhelmingly the violence in this incident was perpetrated by the Antifa affiliates and was not a mutual fray with both sides crossing out of lawful First Amendment expression into riot and violence,” District Attorney Summer Stephan’s office said in a news release.
Stephan’s office said in the release that prosecutors file charges when evidence supports the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt, regardless of the political affiliation of victims, because “the right to peaceful protest must be protected.”
