Accused white racist from South Bay pleads guilty in federal court

The alleged founder of a violent white supremacist organization in Southern California, accused of inciting brawls at political rallies across the state, pleaded guilty to a federal court charge in downtown Los Angeles on Friday.

Robert Rundo, 34, of Huntington Beach pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the federal riot control law. Sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 13.

Rundo's guilty plea comes months after a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously renewed federal charges against him and another alleged member of the organization.

Rundo was extradited from Romania last year after spending nearly a year on the run. As part of his guilty plea, federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a maximum prison sentence of two years. Rundo has already spent nearly two years in prison, court records show.

According to the indictment, Rundo is a founding member of the now-defunct South Bay organization, which presented itself as “a combative, militant group of a new nationalist white supremacy and identity movement.”

It also states that Rundo and his colleagues took part in several peaceful protests during which they persecuted and violently attacked counter-demonstrators.

“Mr. Rundo unjustly subjected his victims to cowardly and gratuitous acts of violence, torn apart by hatred among the victims, their families and our community,” Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said in a statement.

The charges were dismissed in February for the second time in five years by then-U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney. The now-retired Orange County judge had dismissed charges in the case in 2019 after Rundo's lawyers argued that the anti-riot law cited by federal prosecutors was “unconstitutionally overbroad.”

Carney concluded that the government selectively prosecuted Rundo and 31-year-old Robert Boman of Torrance while ignoring violence by members of Antifa and related left-wing extremist groups because the white supremacist organization expressed itself in ways the government and many others consider more offensive.

Boman – who is accused of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Riot Act and sedition – has not reached a plea deal with the government and may face trial, court records show.

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

According to the appeals court, the defendants “behaved like leaders of an organized crime gang. They coordinated combat training, created materials to recruit others, and planned trips across the country to commit their acts. Nothing in the record suggests that (members of the radical left group) were similarly organized. That is, there is no evidence that these individuals trained together, coordinated their participation in other rallies, recruited others, or did anything other than commit acts of violence at the Huntington Beach rally,” Smith wrote.

Accused white racist from South Bay pleads guilty in federal court

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