After punching incident, N.C. sheriff ponders ‘inciting a riot’ charge against Trump

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Trump threatens to encourage supporters to protest Sanders

Donald Trump blamed Bernie Sanders's supporters for protests at his rallies and drew escalating criticism from GOP opponents. His impact on both parties illustrated the unusual position he occupies in the race.

His unpredictable and combative approach will face its biggest test yet this week in five primaries that offer him an opportunity to effectively put away his GOP competition.

Jeers and violence erupted between Donald Trump supporters and protesters at the Republican frontrunner's rally in Fayetteville, N.C., on March 9. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

By David A. Fahrenthold and Sarah Larimer March 14 at 5:37 PM

A North Carolina sheriff’s office is investigating whether Republican front-runner Donald Trump’s actions at a Fayetteville, N.C., rally last week “rose to the level of inciting a riot,” according to a statement from the department’s lawyer.

“We are continuing to look at the totality of these circumstances . . . including the potential of whether there was conduct on the part of Mr. Trump or the Trump campaign which rose to the level of inciting a riot,” said the statement from Cumberland Sheriff’s Office attorney Ronnie Mitchell. An associate in Mitchell’s office read the statement aloud to a Washington Post reporter.

The statement said the sheriff’s office was also looking into further charges against John Franklin McGraw, 78, who allegedly was the man seen sucker-punching a protester as that person was being led out of the Trump rally by police. In addition, Mitchell said, the office was investigating how its own deputies reacted — or didn’t — during the incident.

“We are not in a position to comment further at this time,” Mitchell’s statement concluded. It did not give details about when the investigation into Trump’s behavior would conclude. The county sheriff, Earl “Moose” Butler, did not return calls for comment Monday afternoon.

[Trump rally attendee charged with hitting black man]

Later in the day, however, the public information officer for the sheriff’s office told The Post that he believed it was unlikely that Trump would face charges.

“I don’t think we’re going to be making any charges against Mr. Trump,” Sgt. Sean Swain said. Referring to the earlier statement from Mitchell, Swain said: “I think that’s a misconstrued statement.”

The phone was then disconnected, and Swain did not return calls back asking for more clarity.

Mitchell, the sheriff’s attorney who made the earlier statement, did not immediately respond to messages left for him Monday evening, in the aftermath of Swain’s statement.

Under North Carolina law, a riot is “a public disturbance involving an assemblage of three or more persons which by disorderly and violent conduct, or the imminent threat of disorderly and violent conduct, results in injury or damage to persons or property or creates a clear and present danger of injury or damage to persons or property.”

The charge of “inciting a riot” is a misdemeanor, defined this way: “Any person who willfully incites or urges another to engage in a riot, so that as a result of such inciting or urging a riot occurs or a clear and present danger of a riot is created.”

[Trump: There has been ‘no violence’ at campaign rallies]

Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment. He is campaigning Monday in North Carolina for the Republican presidential nomination, ahead of that state’s GOP primary on Tuesday.

Man describes Trump rally altercation that led to his friend getting sucker-punched
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A North Carolina man named Ronnie C. Rouse says he and his friends were thrown out of a Donald Trump rally Wednesday, March 9 after one of his friends was punched by another man attending the event. (AP)

The incident in Fayetteville happened March 9, in the early going of a Trump rally.

It was captured on videos, which showed an African American protester with long hair wearing a white T-shirt being led out by sheriff’s deputies as the audience booed. The man extended a middle finger to the audience on his way out.

Then, out of nowhere, the man was punched in the face by a pony-tailed man, who appeared to be white, in a cowboy hat, black vest and pink shirt as the crowd began to cheer. The protester stumbled away, and then was detained by a number of the men in uniforms.

The protester was later identified as Rakeem Jones.

“Boom, he caught me,” Jones told The Washington Post in a telephone interview. “After I get it, before I could even gain my thoughts, I’m on the ground getting escorted out.”

McGraw was charged with assault and disorderly conduct the next day. On his Facebook page, Sheriff Butler said he also added a charge after viewing a video of McGraw, shot later on the night of the rally, in which McGraw said he enjoyed hitting “that loudmouth . . . who was “not acting like an American,” and threatened next time “to kill him.”

After seeing this video, the sheriff said, detectives also charged McGraw with the offense of “communicating threats.”

The first outlet to report that Cumberland County investigators were considering an “inciting a riot” charge was the TV station WRAL in Raleigh, N.C.

Ronnie Mitchell, the attorney for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, said that, during a review of video evidence in the case, investigators took note of Trump making comments during the removal of several protesters at the event.

“We are concerned about a number of things in that speech. We are concerned about activity associated with that speech,” Mitchell told WRAL. “That does not mean that we have decided to charge anyone.”

The incident with McGraw happened in the first few minutes of Trump’s appearance in Fayetteville, and it was the first major disruption of that event. In previous rallies, in other states, Trump had suggested that supporters “knock the crap” out of disruptive protesters, and said “I’d like to punch him in the face” as another protester was escorted out. But in this incident, he had not mentioned anything about protesters until around the time McGraw allegedly threw the punch.

“Hello! Uh oh! Ohh! Uh oh! So early. So early. All right, get ’em out! Thank you. We’re gonna have such fun,” Trump said then, as the crowd chanted “Trump!” “We’re gonna have such fun tonight. Get ’em out. Thank you. Do we love our police? Our police are great.”

Later in the rally, in response to another disruption, Trump was more forceful: “Get out of here. Go home to Mom!” he said, as the crowd cheered. “Nasty. Nasty. Why are they allowed to do things that we’re not allowed to do? Can you explain that to me? Really a disgrace.”

Butler, the elected sheriff of Cumberland County, is a Democrat in his sixth term in office.

Trump’s next scheduled event — his campaign called it a “massive rally” — is at 6 p.m. Eastern time at an airfield in Vienna, Ohio, near Youngstown. Attendees are being required to park at a minor league baseball stadium about eight miles away and take buses to the event. At least 26 officers have been assigned to provide security at the event, said Erich Luketich, a supervisor at the Trumbull County 911 dispatch center.

On Monday, a legal expert at the University of North Carolina law school said it can be difficult to prove a charge of “inciting a riot.”

“We do have very strong protections in this country for speech that is unpleasant, that is hateful, that is deeply offensive,” said Mary-Rose Papandrea, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law who specializes in constitutional law, civil liberties and national security matters. “But incitement of violence, of damage or harm is not protected. The thing is, meeting the legal standard for incitement isn’t easy. Prosecutors have to meet some very rigorous requirements.”

For decades, prosecutors around the country have interpreted riot statutes to apply only in cases where someone willfully intended to inspire or encourage immediate violence. If Trump were actually charged in this case, Papandrea said, he could argue that he had not meant to encourage physical violence before the punch was thrown.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...910_story.html