South Bay Man Gets 35 Days In Jail For Punching Journalist

REDONDO BEACH, CA — A 27-year-old Redondo Beach man was sentenced Thursday to 35 days behind bars, or time already served, for punching a journalist in the face during a clash between former President Donald Trump supporters and opponents in Huntington Beach seven years ago.

Tyler Laube pleaded guilty Oct. 23 to a single misdemeanor charge of interference with a federally protected right without bodily injury. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dismissed anti-riot act charges.

U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney also fined Laube $2,000 and placed him on supervised release for a year. Laube is also prohibited from using drugs and must enroll in drug treatment and mental health programs.

Laube is also barred from associating with anyone from the Rise Above Movement organization or any other white nationalist groups, Carney said.

"Sir, I wish you the best of luck," Carney told Laube. "You've come a long way. Keep it up and be careful who you associate with."

Prosecutors sought a six-month sentence as a deterrent to others. But Carney was unconvinced, and said in his sentencing brief that five more months behind bars "would not create a meaningful difference in deterrent effect."

The case stems from a Trump rally at Bolsa Chica State Beach on March 25, 2017. Laube was originally charged with felonies under the anti-riot act. He was charged in the fall of 2018 along with four others from the white supremacist RAM group.

Carney sided with the defendants in their constitutional argument against the anti-riot act. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals partially overturned Carney's First Amendment ruling in the case in 2021, and on Feb. 21, Carney tossed an indictment against other members of the group, finding prosecutors engaged in selective prosecution since charges were only filed against the white supremacist group members and not members of far-left extremist groups such as Antifa. That has prompted another appeal from prosecutors, who have argued the far-right activists pursued leftist counter- protesters who were walking away from conflicts and that the FBI did not present any leftist activists for prosecution.

But in Carney's view, "far-left groups were at least equally culpable in causing much of the violence that erupted at the various political rallies at issue in this case and elsewhere — a fact the government chose to ignore," he said in his brief.

"The high-level context for this case, then, is this: On the one hand is RAM, which indisputably represents hateful views and beliefs and whose members engaged in violence at political events," Carney said. "But on the other hand, are far-left groups like Antifa, to which the government, at least as to the rallies leading to the charges in this case, has chosen to turn a blind eye even though they were the ones who incited the violence."

Carney noted that prosecutors and Laube "agree on the bare facts: that Mr. Laube punched a journalist at a Bolsa Chica State Beach political rally organized by supporters of President Trump."

Prosecutors, however, focused on Laube's "hateful white-supremacist beliefs and argues that Mr. Laube and his co-defendants affirmatively went after `counter-protestors' and then, apparently unprovoked, attacked a journalist reporting on the rally," Carney said.

Laube "offers a very different story," the judge added.

Laube said an Antifa activist had slapped him twice, and a scrum broke out when a cameraman stepped on and broke an American flag belonging to someone at the rally, according to Carney.

When the reporter tried to come to the aid of the cameraman, he was attacked by someone else, Carney said. Laube thought the journalist looked like someone from Antifa, prompting him to punch the victim, Carney said.

"As the rally organizer pushed Mr. Laube away from the journalist, the Antifa member who had slapped Mr. Laube twice proceeded to pepper spray Mr. Laube and other Trump supporters in the area," Carney said.

Laube made a dash for the ocean waters to flush the toxins out of his eyes and did not re-engage in the violence, Carney said.

Carney said it appeared Laube did not intend to target a reporter and that he was reacting to harassment and attacks from Trump opponents.

"None of that excuses Mr. Laube for the misdemeanor conduct to which he pleaded guilty," Carney said. "It was wrong to punch a journalist who was not engaging in violence. Mr. Laube was not acting in self-defense or in defense of others when he punched the journalist. But the scene was chaotic."

Carney also noted Laube's Dickensian upbringing as a factor of mitigation, but also noted his criminal history.

Laube had multiple run-ins with the law as a juvenile and when he was 19 he was the getaway driver in a 7-Eleven stickup, Carney said.

But Laube "never lived in a stable household with loving parents," Carney said.

When Laube was 4, his father got drunk at a strip club and got involved in a fatal accident that led to a 17-year sentence for vehicular manslaughter, Carney said.

Lauber's mother married a gang member who was physically abusive to her and her son, Carney said.

"Though Mr. Laube's mother eventually divorced that man, she was consistently involved in relationships with other physically abusive men," Carney said.

Laube's mother struggled with a variety of mental health challenges and developed a methamphetamine habit while dealing the drug, Carney said.

"Mr. Laube's grandmother once visited the family and found a 4-year- old (Laube) alone in the streets and his then-1-year-old half-sister in an alleyway," Carney said. "Their mother was asleep in an apartment coming down from methamphetamine."

The family struggled with homelessness, even living for a time in a tool shed where they had to use buckets to relieve themselves, Carney said.

The grandmother got them a two-bedroom apartment in Redondo Beach, but a "violent roommate" attacked the defendant's mother with a screwdriver, Carney said. When he was 10, some men who were "presumably" upset about her drug dealing broke into their apartment and held a shotgun to his mother's head, Carney said.

Laube's grandmother began raising him when he was 10 to 14.

"Understandably, Mr. Laube himself has struggled with his own mental and emotional health and substance abuse," Carney said.

Laube was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder from when he was shot in the neck in an apparent road rage incident when he was a passenger in a car, Carney said. At 14, he got addicted to Xanax and at one point found his best friend dead from an overdose, Carney said.

He also got addicted to heroin and "experimented" with methamphetamine and cocaine, Carney said.

Laube has been sober since Sept. 4, 2021, Carney said. And the defendant has "worked with therapists and networked with his Alcoholics Anonymous community," the judge said.

Laube also "has severed ties with RAM," Carney said.

More prison time "would threaten the substantial progress he has made," Carney said. "It would again expose him to the gangs and drugs that impacted him as a child and young adult. He may well emerge from prison more dangerous than when he went in."

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