Patriot Front trial continues

COEUR d’ALENE — Free speech is at the heart of the trial of five Patriot Front members accused of planning to violently disrupt a Pride celebration in Coeur d’Alene City Park in June 2022.

The trial began Tuesday for for Devin W. Center, James J. Johnson, Forrest C. Rankin, Derek J. Smith and Robert B. Whitted.

They have all pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to riot, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail, as well as by a $5,000 fine.

“No one has the right to interfere with another person’s lawful and peaceful right of free speech and freedom to assemble,” deputy city attorney Ryan Hunter said in court Tuesday, representing the prosecution.

But the defendants conspired to do just that, Hunter said. They allegedly planned for months and traveled from 11 different states to Coeur d’Alene on June 11, 2022, with intentions to incite a riot in a public park where families and children had gathered.

“Their intent was not to peacefully protest,” Hunter said.

Tensions were high that day, prosecutors said, and law enforcement was braced for hundreds of people to attend conflicting events downtown, including groups from out of state.

“It was like a tinderbox or a powder keg waiting for a spark to potentially set it off,” Hunter said.

Patriot Front members allegedly planned to roll into City Park and deploy swiftly from a U-Haul truck, bearing shields and covering their faces. They reportedly came with GPS coordinates, itineraries, a smoke grenade and a speech to be read through a bullhorn.

The contents of the speech aren’t at issue, Hunter said. Rather, it was the “confrontational dynamic” the group allegedly intended to create because they disagreed with the message expressed by those celebrating Pride.

“They were outfitted and appeared ready to act as a riot squad,” Hunter said.

Spokane-based attorney Robert Sargent, who represents the defendants, said he agreed with prosecutors about one thing: Nobody has the right to interfere with another person’s free speech. But he believes that’s what law enforcement did last June.

“That day, the government interfered with their right to peacefully protest,” Sargent said. “They didn’t even get a right to get out of the U-Haul they were in.”

Patriot Front members came to Coeur d’Alene with peaceful intentions and were unfairly punished by police, Sargent said. He asserted that police didn’t arrest any other protestors, including people who carried rifles and others who loudly prayed.

Local police did make some other citations and arrests in and around City Park that day.

Sargent said the defendants committed no acts of violence. They didn’t so much as argue with anyone in downtown Coeur d’Alene and even complied with the police who stopped and arrested them on their way to Pride in the Park.

“Their only intention was to peacefully protest against gay pride,” Sargent said. “They weren’t the only ones. There were others.”

The anonymous tipster who called 911 to report “a little army” piling into the back of a U-Haul truck spoke publicly for the first time Tuesday. A Hayden resident and a veteran, he was identified in court only by his first name, Keith.

Keith testified that he was walking his dog near the SpringHill Suites in Coeur d’Alene when he saw a red Toyota Camry and a white Ford Ranger pull into the mostly empty rear parking lot, along with a U-Haul truck. The occupants of the passenger vehicles didn’t get out right away, which struck him as odd.

Then, as if on cue, the passengers exited the vehicles and began loading gear into the back of the U-Haul, including what appeared to be shields and poles.

“It was almost like military precision,” Keith said in court. “They all exited the vehicles together.”

The group wore similar clothes: khaki pants, blue shirts, baseball caps that police later determined were reinforced with hard plastic inserts. Many wore masks that covered their faces.

Keith took a photo of the group. He called 911 as the U-Haul pulled onto Northwest Boulevard and described it making a right turn, toward downtown.

“They’re definitely not police,” Keith said in the 911 recording, which was played in court.

After making the call, Keith waited at the scene for Emily Taylor, a patrol officer with the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, who also testified Tuesday.

Taylor said she observed multiple homemade shields left behind in the bed of the white pickup, each about 2 1/2 feet in length. She said they appeared similar to shields that police or the military might use.

Before the vehicles were towed and left in a fenced lot at the police department, Taylor said she inventoried their contents. She found no weapons inside the vehicles.

Law enforcement stopped the truck just blocks from City Park. Among the officers at the scene was Jacob Brazle of the Coeur d’Alene Police Department.

Silent dash cam footage from Brazle’s vehicle played in court, showing numerous police officers approach the U-Haul, some with rifles trained on the vehicle.

After several minutes, the back of the van opened, revealing a group of men in blue shirts, khaki pants and masks that covered their faces. Some also wore shin guards, similar to what a catcher might wear.

Police brought the men out of the truck one by one and had them lay face-down on the pavement before directing them to kneel with their hands behind their backs on a grassy area beside the road.

Brazle testified that he approached the front passenger side of the van, where he contacted Thomas Rousseau, the self-described founder and leader of Patriot Front.

Rousseau reportedly told Brazle he had come to Coeur d’Alene to “peacefully exercise his First Amendment right.” He made no mention of the 28 men in the back of the truck.

Brazle said Rousseau and the other Patriot Front members were compliant while police searched them and then arrested them.

While questioning Brazle, Sargent suggested that the mass arrest was pre-planned, pointing to the large, fast law enforcement response.

Brazle rejected the notion. He said the large police presence was due to rising tensions in the weeks leading up to Pride in the Park.

On social media sites, users expressed intentions of going to Coeur d’Alene to support the Pride event or to join an armed protest. Chatter indicating potential conflicts prompted a large, visible police presence in and around downtown Coeur d’Alene the day of the event.

However, Brazle said Tuesday that local law enforcement had no prior knowledge that Patriot Front would be in town. He testified he’d never heard of the group before June 11, 2022.

“The stop was made because of what the reporting party reported to dispatch, who relayed it to law enforcement,” Brazle said.

Though he suspected there were people in the back of the truck because of what Keith told dispatchers, Brazle said he didn’t know for sure until later, when officers began directing Patriot Front members out of the truck. Prior to that, he was focused only on Rousseau.

“That was my duty,” Brazle said. “I have to trust however many cops there are behind me.”

The trial continues today and is expected to run through Thursday or Friday.