White Supremacists Plead Not Guilty To Terrorizing Residents Of Tiny N.D. Town

In this Aug. 26, 2013, photo Craig Cobb stands in an empty lot he owns on Main Street in Leith, N.D., where he envisions a park _ perhaps with a swimming pool _ dedicated to the late neo-Nazi and white supremacist ac... In this Aug. 26, 2013, photo Craig Cobb stands in an empty lot he owns on Main Street in Leith, N.D., where he envisions a park _ perhaps with a swimming pool _ dedicated to the late neo-Nazi and white supremacist activist William L. Pierce. Cobb, 61, a self-described white supremacist, has purchased about a dozen lots in Leith and over the past year he has invited fellow white supremacists to move there and help him to transform the town of 16 people into a white enclave. No one has come, but the community is mobilizing to fight out of fear that Cobb could succeed, and the mayor has vowed to do whatever it takes to ensure Cobb’s dream remains just that. (AP Photo/Kevin Cederstrom) MORE LESS
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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.

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