By Caleb Hutton
Everett Herald
LYNNWOOD — White supremacist emblems on patches, jackets and business cards were seized from the eight people accused of beating a black DJ north of Lynnwood, according to new court records.
A belligerent group of white men flashed Nazi salutes on the dance floor early Saturday, Dec. 8, at the Rec Room Bar and Grill on Highway 99, witnesses told Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies.
One man in the entourage was former U.S. Army Spc. Travis Condor, 34, who runs the hate music label American Defense Records out of a Pittsburgh apartment, according to the nonprofit PublicSource.
The latest album from Condor’s racist skinhead punk band, Birthrite, featured a picture on the cover of Robert J. Mathews, the leader of white terrorist group The Order. Mathews died in a gunfight with authorities on Whidbey Island on Dec. 8, 1984. Each year, white nationalists travel to the site of his cabin to remember his “sacrifice,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Last weekend marked the 34th year since Mathews’ death.
At the bar, Condor wore a T-shirt and a jacket promoting his record label, which has released songs like “Save Your Race,” “Strength Thru Hate” and “New Confederacy.” He wore two patches showing a noose.
Pictures from Condor’s time in the 82nd Airborne show a tattoo of a Celtic Cross on one arm, a common symbol of the white power movement. He’d posted photos on Flickr under the name borntohate.
Others in the bar were literally card-carrying white nationalists.
Randy Smith, 38, of Eugene, Oregon, brought four business cards associated with the hate group Crew 38, according to search warrants. He also had a Nazi swastika on a ring.
Crew 38 is a support group for skinheads in Hammerskin Nation, one of the nation’s most widespread hate groups. The number 38 refers to the third and eighth letters of the alphabet, for crossed hammers, an image on the Hammerskin flag. The most notorious Hammerskin was Wade Michael Page, who killed six people at a Sikh temple in 2012.
Someone in the Rec Room group approached the DJ gear around 12:40 a.m., and tried to change the music. The African-American DJ stopped him. Amid shouts of the N-word, the group said something about the Nazi salute being still alive. Then they jumped on the man and stomped him.
Security footage showed “a large group swarming on top of the DJ,” court papers say. Defense attorneys, including Condor’s lawyer Walter Peale, argued the court papers weren’t specific about who threw punches.
“I have not heard the prosecutor identify witnesses saying, ‘Mr. Condor did fill-in-the-blank, when he fill-in-the-blanked me,’” Peale said.
One witness recalled two women in the group trying to inflame the attack. Another witness estimated 14 men beating up the man.
The DJ suffered a swollen eye and other injuries. The bar manager, who is Asian American, reported he tried to break up the fight but got hit in the temple with what felt like brass knuckles. The attackers fled as witnesses called 911.
Sheriff’s deputies pulled over a white Toyota Tundra with Oregon license plates a half-mile away. Six people in the truck, including Condor and Smith, were arrested for investigation of malicious harassment, the state’s hate crime law.
The driver, Cory Colwell, 34, of Eugene, Oregon, wore a sweatshirt reading “Brotherhood” and “Blood Honor,” and a Crew 38 patch, court papers say. At jail, deputies seized three Birthrite stickers from him.
Leah Northcraft, 25, of Raleigh, North Carolina, wore a T-shirt with an imperial cross and a hoodie supporting the band Skrewdriver, a British skinhead punk group that turned white supremacist in the 1980s. She’d been fired from her job at a salon about two months ago over her “toxic beliefs,” according to Indy Week in North Carolina.
She posted $25,000 bond. She’s accused of hurling racial epithets, but not assaulting the man.
Daniel Dorson, 23, of Corvallis, Oregon, wore a Crew 38 jacket and T-shirt, and he had a Crew 38 business card. The Oregonian reported that Dorson beat a man unconscious with a skateboard in Portland in 2013.
Nathaniel Woodell, 32, of Woodstock, Illinois, had an American Defense patch on his jacket and a double-ax patch.
“He is a visiting musician from Illinois that was over here on a concert tour,” attorney Thomas Cox said in court this week. Cox later added, “He’s not a member of any hate group.”
Woodell told the judge he has children and feared he would lose his job if he stayed behind bars. He posted $25,000 bond.
Two people in another fleeing car were arrested by Lynnwood police. Witnesses caught the license plate of the Mazda.
The driver, Vincent Nutter, 28, of Bothell, has served prison time for drug- and gun-related crimes. He wore a Crew 38 patched jacket. He’s also accused of DUI. Nutter posted $100,000 bond.
The passenger, Guy Miller III, 37, of Tacoma, reportedly wore a Crew 38 patch.
All eight were identified as attackers by the DJ. It’s unclear if others remain at large.
Condor’s attorney told a judge the Army veteran was in the wrong place at the wrong time: He accepted a ride from a hotel to a loud venue, and when the noise became too overwhelming, they left. The Toyota driver stopped at the Rec Room to grab a late-night bite.
“My client sat at a table and did nothing more than that,” Peale said.
Security footage hasn’t been released.
Condor has a violent record. He beat a homeless man at random with a group of soldiers — armed with pipes and baseball bats — in April 2010 in Ohio. The man was left with facial fractures and needed 18 stitches. Condor gave a face-to-face apology, and a judge ordered a 90-day sentence.
