Patriot Front trials set for July in Coeur d'Alene
Kootenai County Sheriff's Office personnel in riot gear guard Coeur d'Alene police officers who arrested the individuals seen kneeling June 11, 2022 with their hands cuffed behind their backs in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. (CDA Press FILE)
COEUR d’ALENE — More than a year after their arrest for allegedly planning to violently disrupt a Pride celebration in Coeur d’Alene City Park, six members of white nationalist hate group Patriot Front are expected to stand trial.
The six men — Devin W. Center, James J. Johnson, Cameron K. Pruitt, Forrest C. Rankin, Derek J. Smith and Robert B. Whitted — have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to riot, a misdemeanor.
Jury trials are scheduled to begin July 17 in Coeur d’Alene.
The charges stem from June 2022, when area law enforcement arrested 31 Patriot Front members on their way to the Pride celebration in City Park. Police stopped the group, who were crammed into the back of a U-Haul truck, just blocks from the park.
Patriot Front broke off from neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America after the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in 2017. The group’s manifesto reportedly calls for the formation of a white ethnostate in the United States.
When police arrested the men in Coeur d’Alene, they wore hats that were reinforced with hard plastic inserts and carried what police described as “tactical” medical kits, as well as radios, cameras, homemade shields and “abnormally long” metal flag poles.
The group also had a document detailing “call locations, primary checkpoints, drill times, prep times and observation windows,” as well as GPS coordinates for a drop point and two backup plans, according to court records.
The document outlined a plan to form a column outside City Park and proceed inward, “until barriers to approach are met.” At that point, the column would disengage and head down Sherman Avenue.
Rioting is generally a misdemeanor in Idaho. Conspiracy to riot is punishable by up to one year in jail, as well as by a $5,000 fine and up to two years of probation.
In November, Patriot Front member Alexander N. Sisenstein entered a written guilty plea to the misdemeanor offense of disturbing the peace for his part in the 2022 incident.
He received the sentence recommended by Coeur d’Alene prosecutors: 180 days in jail with 179 days suspended and one day credit for time served, as well as two years of unsupervised probation. Sisenstein must also pay a $500 fine.