Two white supremacists pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of terrorizing residents in a tiny North Dakota town with guns, the Bismarck Tribune reported.
Attorneys for Craig Cobb and Kynan Dutton, who planned to take over Leith, N.D. and turn it into an all-white enclave, argued that the men’s guns were legal and asked for the seven felony terrorizing charges against their clients to be dismissed, or reduced to disorderly conduct.
District Judge Donald Jorgensen instead ordered a trial. A date for that trial has not been set, according to the Tribune.
Cobb, a hate crimes fugitive from Canada, and his follower Dutton were arrested in November when neighbors alleged the men threatened them with guns.
Grant County Deputy John Foss testified Wednesday that Cobb appeared “enraged” during one of those encounters, where he insulted the religion of a pastor’s wife, according to the Tribune.
The tension in Leith built up after Cobb started buying up property, some of which the town tried to condemn, and persuading other white supremacists like Dutton to relocate there.
