Patriot Front trial continues

COEUR d’ALENE — Local police officers took the stand Wednesday and described their roles in the arrest of 31 Patriot Front members in June 2022.

It was the second day of the trial of Kieran Morris and Wesley Van Horn, who are accused of planning to incite a riot during a Pride celebration in City Park. They have both pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to riot by disturbing the public peace, a misdemeanor.

Van Horn and Morris are the second group of Patriot Front defendants to face a jury. Last month, five other Patriot Front members were convicted of the same crime.

The atmosphere was tense June 11, 2022, as citizenry converged on downtown Coeur d’Alene — both to celebrate Pride and to protest it. Police said they’d received intelligence indicating that groups were coming from outside the area and altercations were possible.

“We had information from our law enforcement partners,” said Capt. Dave Hagar. “We had informant sources that people had contacted bail bondsmen to have bonds pre-set for the event.”

That, police said, was why they responded quickly upon receiving a call about a suspicious U-Haul truck with a “little army” in the back, headed for City Park.

Many of the Patriot Front members found inside the truck were equipped with shields, as well as shin guards and hats reinforced with hard plastic inserts. Morris reportedly carried with him a smoke bomb and a bullhorn decorated with stickers that included the phrase “Abolish the FBI” and a black fist with a red prohibition sign over it.

Prosecutors showed jurors one of the metal shields that police collected from the U-Haul truck. The shield was red, white and blue, decorated with a chevron. It was visibly scuffed and warped.

Hagar said the shields carried by Patriot Front are different from the shields used by law enforcement, which are made of lightweight plexiglass and curved all around.

“It’s so that you don’t inadvertently hurt someone with it,” Hagar said.

Though shields are primarily used for defensive purposes, Hagar said they can also be used offensively, to push others backward and advance.

Outside the presence of the jury, counsel debated a possible piece of evidence.

Defense attorney Richard Baughman said he received an email Tuesday night from Graham Whitson, another Patriot Front arrestee who has been wanted on a bench warrant since March, when he failed to appear for a hearing.

Whitson reportedly sent defense counsel an affidavit describing several videos he recorded on digital cameras and a cellphone, which were seized as evidence during the arrest.

The cellphone recording, Whitson allegedly said, shows Patriot Front members discussing a plan to remain nonviolent and obey the law during their protest.

Baughman asked the court to compel prosecutors to turn over the video.

“It’s directly relevant to my clients’ innocence,” he said.

Prosecutors said there’s no evidence the cellphone video actually exists. The video wasn’t recovered from Whitson’s phone.

The other files gleaned from defendants’ devices — more than three terabytes of data — were provided to defense counsel by mid February of this year, prosecutors said, including the other videos referred to in Whitson’s email.

“Conveniently, the one video they claim is missing is the one time in all their preparation where they claim they’re going to be law-abiding,” said deputy city attorney Ryan Hunter.

Judge Mayli Walsh ordered prosecutors to prepare an affidavit confirming their office provided all information pulled from Whitson’s devices have been disclosed to defense counsel.

The trial resumes at 8:30 a.m. today.