Former Head of Identity Evropa Taken Into Custody for Contempt of Court
Elliott Kline, the onetime leader of Identity Evropa, is in federal custody after being found in contempt of court for failing to cooperate in a civil lawsuit stemming from the violent 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� rally.
How long Kline, of Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, will remain incarcerated is unclear. U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon ordered Kline, who also goes by 鈥淓li Mosley,鈥� to surrender to U.S. Marshals Monday.
Moon filed an order Monday indicating that Kline had turned himself in.
The contempt citation, which also carries a $600 fine, comes in a lawsuit filed by 10 Charlottesville, Virginia, residents alleging injuries during the Aug. 12, 2017, white nationalist gathering.
Kline helped Identity Evropa聽founder Nathan Damigo plan and run Unite the Right.
After months of orders and negotiations, Moon held Kline in contempt in December, citing Kline鈥檚 refusal to turn over electronic devices and passwords as part of the pre-trial process in the lawsuit.
鈥淚n short, Kline has not shown that he has taken 鈥榓ll reasonable steps to ensure compliance鈥� with this Court鈥檚 and Judge (Joel) Hoppe鈥檚 orders, and to purge himself of civil contempt,鈥� Moon wrote in a six-page order. 鈥淣or has he shown he is otherwise unable to comply with such orders.鈥�
Kline, in court filings, has given multiple reasons for not turning over the electronic devices and passwords, including that he鈥檚 changed phones and that the passwords were lost.
In a last-minute court filing Monday morning, Kline said he鈥檚 turned over all email and social media accounts he has access to and all phones he used during Unite the Right.
鈥淚 believe I have completed all of the Plaintiff鈥檚 and Court鈥檚 requirements to purge myself of contempt and completed my discovery obligations,鈥� Kline wrote.
Moon held Kline in contempt Nov. 27 and gave him until Monday, Dec. 16, to turn over all the devices sought or go to jail until he did so. Moon also issued a $200 a day fine for each day Kline didn鈥檛 comply with the order to surrender the devices. The U.S. Marshals have Kline in custody in Charlottesville.
Kline isn鈥檛 the only defendant聽who has chosen not to cooperate with the court. Robert 鈥淎zzmador鈥� Ray, a neo-Nazi writer and podcaster who has worked for the Daily Stormer, and neo-Nazi podcaster Christopher Cantwell聽have been dropped by their attorneys for refusing to cooperate as part of the lawsuit.
In addition to the fine Kline has been issued, his failure to cooperate聽can also have a harsh legal impact.
It can result in Moon issuing an 鈥渁dverse inference鈥� order to jurors, essentially telling the jury to adopt the plaintiff鈥檚 position on what may have been on Kline鈥檚 phone and computer concerning Unite the Right.
For others, the refusal has resulted in default judgments. Daily Stormer proprietor and neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin, alt-right personality聽Augustus Invictus and both the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights and the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan have forfeited their rights to present a defense at trial by not responding to the civil lawsuit.
Kline is among 26 people and groups sued in 2017 after the Unite the Right rally.
Plaintiffs in the case are trying to show that the Unite the Right rally聽wasn鈥檛 a case of free speech, but rather an organized call to violence by white supremacists, white nationalists and racists generally.
The crux of the case is that the violence of Unite the Right was premeditated, making the actions of Aug. 11-12, 2017, evidence of a conspiracy.
The rally, a big public push by the alt-right, featured a torch-lit march by white supremacists chanting 鈥淛ews will not replace us鈥� and saw a follower plow a car into a crowd, killing 32-year-old counterprotester Heather Heyer. James Alex Fields Jr., a 22-year-old from Maumee, Ohio, is serving multiple life sentences in a federal prison in West Virginia for Heyer鈥檚 death.
Delays by defendants in turning over phones, computers and other electronics have聽resulted in the trial being postponed once. Originally scheduled to begin July 8, 2019, it is now slated to start Oct. 26.
Editor鈥檚 Note:聽 An earlier version of this article referenced Jeff Schoep, his participation in discovery in the civil lawsuit, and the existence of a second mobile phone belonging to Mr. Schoep. Mr. Schoep states that he was never in possession of a second mobile phone and that the only phone that he had was submitted to the court.聽Hatewatch apologizes for the error.
Photo by Eze Amos/Instagram @ezeamosphotography
