Antifa demonstrators involved in 2021 Pacific Beach riot sentenced
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SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A contingent of anti-fascist demonstrators involved in a 2021 clash with supporters of former President Donald Trump in Pacific Beach were sentenced in court for various felony charges on Friday.
The sentencing officially ends a high-profile criminal case that involved nearly a dozen defendants who were claimed members of the anti-fascist group, antifa.
The eight defendants sentenced on Friday received jail time ranging from 180 days to two years in prison, according to District Attorney Summer Stephan’s Office.
This included two men, Jeremy White and Brian Cortez Lightfoot Jr., who were found guilty of assault charges following a weeks-long trial earlier this year. The other six defendants sentenced on Friday previously pleaded guilty to receive reduced charges and jail time.
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Three additional defendants are already serving out jail time, ranging from two years, eight months to five years behind bars, prosecutors said.
“I don’t know for any minute that the Trump supporters were offensive to the defendants and others in Pacific Beach that day,” the judge presiding over Friday’s sentencing said. “But that’s the nature of political speech. That does not mean that individuals with offensive speech cannot assemble, congregate and protest — ANTIFA could have done that.”
The charges stem from a melee at a counter-protest to the so-called “Patriot March” in Pacific Beach on Jan. 9, 2021. The antifa-affiliated demonstrators were accused of tear-gassing and attacking the pro-Trump protestors with other weapons.
A grand jury handed down indictments against 11 people about a year later, in 2022. All defendants were either convicted of the charges or entered a guilty plea to them, prosecutors said.
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