White supremacist group member from Redondo Beach pleads guilty to conspiracy for role in O.C. rally violence

LOS ANGELES — A member of a militant Southern California white supremacist group pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge in connection with a violent political rally in Orange County last year in which several journalists were attacked.

Tyler Laube, 22, of Redondo Beach, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the federal riots act.

U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney scheduled sentencing for March 25 in downtown Los Angeles. Laube was ordered to remain in custody pending sentencing. He is expected to receive between one and three years in prison, according to court documents.

In a plea agreement he signed last week, Laube admitted to being associated with the so-called Rise Above Movement, attending a “combat-training event” in San Clemente on March 15, 2017, and assaulting counter-protesters and others at a “Make America Great Again” rally in Huntington Beach 10 days later.

At the March 25, 2017 rally, Laube and other RAM members broke off from the main event at Bolsa Chica State Beach and confronted protesters opposed to President Donald Trump, and several journalists, according to prosecutors. An OC Weekly reporter and two photographers said they were assaulted at the event.

RAM members then posted photos and videos of assaults committed by Laube and others in order to recruit potential members “to engage in violent confrontations at future events,” according to the plea agreement.

Laube and three others were indicted by a Los Angeles federal grand jury on Nov. 1 for allegedly inciting violence against counter-protesters, journalists and a police officer at political rallies in California.

Laube and co-defendants Robert Rundo, 28, of Huntington Beach, Robert Boman, 25, of Torrance, and Aaron Eason 38, of the Riverside County community of Anza, were indicted on one count each of conspiracy to violate the federal riots act. Additionally, Rundo, Boman and Eason were charged with violating the riots statute. Each of the two counts carry sentences of up to five years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Last month, federal authorities arrested suspected RAM founder Benjamin Daley, 25, of Redondo Beach, and three others for their suspected roles in last year’s deadly far-right rallies in Charlottesville, Va.

Daley, Thomas Walter Gillen, 24, also of Redondo Beach, Michael Paul Miselis, 29, of Lawndale, and Cole Evan White, 24, of Clayton, Calif., are awaiting trial in Virginia.