TWP chief Matthew Heimbach arrested for battery after affair with top spokesman's wife
Below聽is an update to an earlier story posted about Matthew Heimbach's arrest.
Matthew Heimbach, the leader of the Traditionalist Worker Party, is free on bond after being charged with battery in southern Indiana after a bizarre sequence of events involving Heimbach having an affair with his chief spokesman鈥檚 wife.
Police in Paoli, Indiana, said Heimbach attacked his wife and TWP spokesman Matt Parrott early Tuesday morning after the two confronted him about the affair with Parrott鈥檚 wife.
After the arrest, Parrott announced he was walking away from the group.
鈥淚鈥檓 done. I鈥檓 out,鈥� Parrott told the Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday. 鈥溔耸扌越� has won. Matt Parrott is out of the game. Y鈥檃ll have a nice life.鈥�
Parrott declined to comment further on Heimbach鈥檚 arrest or his resignation. His resignation came hours after the arrest and just days after he learned of the affair between Heimbach and his wife.
Heimbach, 26, posted $1,000 bond and was released Tuesday. He did not answer calls to his cellphone and did not return questions sent by text message from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The strange incident began just after 1 a.m. Tuesday, when Matt Parrott, 36, called police from a Walmart near his home. He fled to the Walmart with his step-daughter after a violent confrontation with Heimbach.
The step-daughter told police that Heimbach and Parrott鈥檚 wife had been having an affair for three months. Heimbach and Parrott鈥檚 wife said the fling had ended.
The step-daughter and Parrott鈥檚 wife tried to set up Heimbach to see if he would continue the affair after saying it was over, police said in a report.
During the set聽up at Parrott鈥檚 Paoli trailer home, Matthew Parrott and his step-daughter waited outside, standing on a box and watching through a window, police said.聽
A confrontation ensued between Heimbach and Matt Parrott. Parrott told police Heimbach twisted him down to the ground, then 鈥渃hoked [him] out.鈥�
鈥淗e grabbed and injured my hand after I poked his chest then choked me out with his arm,鈥� Parrott said in a handwritten statement to police. 鈥淭hen he chased me to my home and did it again.鈥�
After police arrived, the responding officer overheard a verbal confrontation between Heimbach and his wife, followed by a 鈥渟cuffle,鈥� the report states. Heimbach鈥檚 wife said her husband kicked a wall, grabbed her face 鈥渁nd threw me with the hand on my face onto the bed.鈥澛� Police said the step-daughter recorded the attack on her cellphone.
In the report, all four people involved in the incident recorded their occupations as 鈥淲hite Nationalist.鈥�
Parrott has been distancing himself from Heimbach and the TWP in recent days.
On the alt-right social media platform Gab, Parrott posted on March 9: 鈥淚 have attempted to be a positive, uplifting, and unifying voice in the nationalist cause. At a certain point, even the most stubborn man must hold himself accountable to the fruit of his labor. My focus from here on out will be exclusively infrastructure and logistics.鈥�
Heimbach started up the Traditionalist Youth Network (TYN)聽in 2013 after graduating from Towson University. He and his father-in-law, Parrott, later folded TYN into the聽Traditionalist Worker Party, a聽white nationalist organization cloaking itself in 鈥渢raditionalism.鈥�
The latest arrest puts Heimbach in jeopardy of going to jail for a prior incident.
Heimbach pleaded guilty in July 2017 to disorderly conduct聽in the assault of聽a protester at a 2016 campaign event for Donald Trump in Louisville, Kentucky.
Heimbach was fined $145 and sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct, a lesser charge.聽District Court Judge Stephanie Pearce Burke suspended the jail time so long as Heimbach avoids being charged with another offense in the next two years.
A probation hearing for Heimbach is set in Kentucky on June 1.
A federal civil lawsuit is pending against Heimbach, President Donald Trump and others stemming from the incident.
Heimbach鈥檚 scandal and arrest is the latest incident to rock the alt-right.
Over the weekend, Richard B. Spencer, head of the National Policy Institute, announced he would forgo any more campus speeches for now after a sparsely attended speech on March 5 at Michigan State University.
Heimbach and members of the TWP were outside the agricultural pavilion where Spencer spoke, at one point physically fighting with and throwing rocks at protesters. By the time the fights ended, more than two dozen people 鈥� protestors and Spencer supporters 鈥� were arrested.
In the days after the Michigan State fracas, Heimbach posted on Gab: 鈥淥ur speaker spoke at 鈥榶our鈥� campus. We picked your best fighters up and threw them around like rag dolls until the police stepped in to protect y'all, and we even captured your flag, f------,鈥� TWP wrote.
Photo credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images
