Purported founder of violent California supremacist group won’t be freed from lockup for now

The purported founder of a Southern California militant supremacist group must remain behind bars for now, with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determining that a federal judge who ordered him released wrongly determined he wasn’t potentially dangerous or a flight risk.

The appellate judges, in a written order released this week, overruled U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney’s decision to release Robert Rundo, the Huntington Beach man accused of founding the Rise Above Movement and recruiting and training others to attack political rivals at rallies in Orange County, San Bernardino County and Northern California.

The 9th Circuit judges have not yet decided whether to overrule Carney’s decision to throw out the federal criminal charges Rundo is accused of, including conspiracy and being involved in riots.

Carney said federal prosecutors had selectively prosecuted Rundo and other suspected “far-right, white supremacist nationalists” but ignored the actions of members of “Antifa and other extremist, far-left groups.”

Carney ordered Rundo released immediately after dismissing his charges. Rundo was briefly free before federal prosecutors persuaded the appeals court to temporarily order his re-arrest. The ruling this week keeps Rundo in custody.

In releasing Rundo, the appellate judges wrote, Carney ignored “mountains of evidence (including) photographs and videos of Rundo physically assaulting people, and posts on social media where Rundo gloated about having used violence to harm people.”

The appellate ruling also notes that Rundo previously “evaded the government for years by using fake passports and other identification (and) was only before the district court in this case because he was successfully extradited from Romania.”

Carney’s rulings in the Rundo case drew widespread attention.

Carney has acknowledged that Rundo and other Rise Above Movement members likely promoted “reprehensible (ideas and) likely committed violence.” But the judge also argued that far-left members of Antifa “engaged in worse conduct” but were not targeted for prosecution. That amounted, Carney determined, to selective prosecution and a violation of Rundo’s constitutional rights.

Judge Carney’s concern about the government’s actions extended to other Rise Above Movement members.

In April, Carney sentenced Tyler Laube — a Huntington Beach man and former Rise Above Movement member — to time served in custody and a year of supervised release for his actions at a “Make America Great Again” march at Bolsa Chica State Beach in 2017 that turned into a 30-minute brawl. Carney placed much of the blame for the violence at that rally — which included Laube punching a reporter — on Antifa members.

Federal prosecutor’s have denied selectively targeting Rundo. In court filings they have cited the Rise Above Movement’s alleged training of members in hand-to-hand combat and the bragging about physical confrontations.

“(The Rise Above Movement’s) tactic was simple: Its ‘guidelines’ instructed members to ‘look defensive in beginning of all scuffle or fights,’ so they could assault others with impunity,” prosecutors wrote. “Under the banner of (the Rise Above Movement), defendant and his co-conspirators engaged in a campaign of violence throughout 2017 during which they traveled to multiple events to assault others in furtherance of their shared extremist ideology.”

If the appellate court ultimately allows the criminal case to move forward, Judge Carney would no longer be involved. He recently retired from the bench after a lengthy judicial career.