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Accused violent white supremacist who lived in Huntington Beach gets time served

December 13, 2024

An accused founder of a violent Southern California white supremacist organization who lived in Huntington Beach was sentenced on Friday, Dec. 13, in downtown Los Angeles to the two years he already served on a federal charge of inciting brawls at political rallies across the state.

Robert Rundo, 34, who lived in Huntington Beach, pleaded guilty in September to one count of conspiracy to violate the federal Anti-Riot Act, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Rundo was extradited from Romania last year after spending nearly a year on the run. Rundo was expected to be released from custody sometime Friday, Dec. 13, prosecutors said.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Rundo was a founding member of a now-defunct South Bay organization that represented itself as “a combat-ready, militant group of a new nationalist white supremacy and identity movement.” An indictment also says that Rundo and his colleagues attended a number of peaceful protests, where they chased down and violently attacked counter-protesters.

“Mr. Rundo’s cowardly and unprovoked acts of violence were unjustly carried out upon his victims, leaving those who were victimized, their families, and our community torn by hate,” Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said in a statement after Rundo pleaded guilty.

The indictment was dismissed in February for the second time in five years by then-U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney. The now-retired judge had rejected criminal charges in the case in 2019, after Rundo’s attorneys argued that the Anti-Riot Act cited by federal prosecutors was “unconstitutionally over-broad.”

Carney concluded that the government selectively prosecuted Rundo and Robert Boman, 31, of Torrance while ignoring violence by members of far-left extremist groups because the white supremacist organization engaged in what the government and many believe is more offensive speech.

Boman — who is charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Riot Act and one count of rioting — has a February trial date set, according to court records.

In the 9th Circuit opinion in July, Judge Milan D. Smith Jr., a nominee of President George W. Bush, knocked down Carney’s selective prosecution theory, writing that the opposing left- and right-wing groups were not similar enough to meet the required standard.

The rallies involved in the case were on May 25, 2017, at Bolsa Chica Beach in Huntington Beach; April 15, 2017, in Berkeley; and June 10, 2017, in San Bernardino.

Orange County Register

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Accused violent white supremacist who lived in Huntington Beach gets time served

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