Arizona Man Accused Of Racially Targeting Journalists, Activists

PHOENIX, AZ — A Phoenix area man is among four facing federal charges after being accused of targeting journalists and activists with anti-Semitic hate and threats of violence by delivering threatening and intimidating posters to their homes.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrests Wednesday, adding that they should serve as a warning to anyone who intends to use violence or intimidation to "further their ideology."

According to court documents filed in Washington State district court, the four men — who authorities said are connected to the neo-Nazi terrorist group Atomwaffen — are accused of conspiring via an encrypted online chat group to identify journalists and others they wanted to intimidate. The group focused primarily on journalists of color and Jewish descent, the documents stated.

The men created posters that included threatening language, Nazi symbols and masked figures with guns and Molotov cocktails, the documents state. The posters were delivered or mailed to journalists or activists the group was targeting.

In Phoenix, the poster was delivered to a magazine journalist. In the Seattle area, the posters were mailed to a TV journalist who reported on Atomwaffen and to two people associated with the Anti-Defamation League. In Tampa, the group targeted a journalist but delivered the poster to the wrong address.

Those charged in the conspiracy include:

• Johnny Roman Garza, 20, of Queen Creek, Arizona
• Cameron Brandon Shea, 24, of Redmond, Washington
• Kaleb Cole, 24, of Montgomery, Texas
• Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe, 20, of Spring Hill, Florida

All are facing federal charges of conspiracy to mail threatening communications and commit cyberstalking.

Raymond Duda, an FBI special agent in Seattle, said that while all U.S. citizens have a protected right to free speech under the First Amendement, the four men arrested "crossed the line."

"(The subjects) crossed the line from protected ideas and speech to action in order to intimidate and coerce individuals who they perceived as a threat to their ideology of hate,” Duda said.

Shea made his initial appearance Wednesday at the federal courthouse in Seattle. Those arrested in other districts are to make their appearances in federal court in those districts and appear in Seattle on a future date.

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Seattle, Tampa, Houston and Phoenix. The case is to be prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Woods with assistance from U.S. Attorney's Offices in the Middle District of Florida, Southern District of Texas, District of Arizona, and Central District of California.