Ellensburg Man Pleads Not Guilty In Alleged Plan to Disrupt Pride Event

An Ellensburg man is one of four members of a white supremacist group to appear before a judge in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Monday on charges of criminal conspiracy to riot.

Spencer Simpson, 20, joined the other three members of the Patriot Front in pleading not guilty, although he was the only one to appear in person.

The four men along with 27 others were arrested after they were found in the back of a U-Haul truck and accused of planning to violently disrupt a Pride celebration in Coeur d’Alene in June.

Simpson and the others were equipped with riot gear and a smoke grenade when they were arrested.

Five of the 31 people arrested, including Simpson, are from Washington.

The Patriot Front was formed after the 2017 “Unite the Right,” rally in Charlottesville where a counter protester was run over and killed, according to reporting from MyNorthwest in its quoting of Miri Cypers, the Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League.