It took the last big violent Proud Boy event in Portland to take this clown down. He’s looking at a minimum of almost six years.
The right wing rally on August 22, 2021 was called the “Summer of Love” rally by the assembled Proud Boys and militia groups but it devolved into anything but as they brawled with counter protesters and even smashed and turned a van over in the parking lot. A year and a half later one of the more prominent Proud Boys who is known for his violent antics was found guilty by Multnomah County Circuit Judge Amy Baggio for his role that day on ten counts that included assault and riot charges.
According news reports, Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, 25, was convicted in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Thursday on five counts of assault, including assault with a weapon, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon, two counts of riot and two counts of criminal mischief, ten counts in all. Baggio acquitted him of one of the assault charges.
Toese was one of the speakers during the rally held in the parking lot of a long-closed Kmart where he defended his fellow Proud Boys that are currently on trial for their role in the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington, DC and attack the trans community by saying that he will assault anyone he deems not to be a woman should they go into a women’s bathroom. When counterprotesters showed up, he was among those leading the attack on them and both sides went at each other with paint ball guns and bear mace. When he saw a person in a truck in the parking lot he gestured for others to attack driver Mark Nunziata and the vehicle, claiming they were antifa. The group began assaulting Nunziata, smashing windows and slashing tires until finally they ended up turning the van over on its side. Reportedly the van was a rented medical vehicle.
He and fellow Proud Boy Miles Furrow were arrested shortly after and Furrow accepted a plea deal for punching Nunziata and was sentenced to probation. When Toese was arrested in February, 2022 he was released after supporters raised $85,000 in cash. Toese was arrested in December after he let his GPS tracker go dark and has been in jail ever since.
When Toese is sentenced on March 24, he faces a mandatory five years and 10 months sentence in state prison, although prosecutors plan to seek to enhancement his punishment due to his constant criminal activity and unlikelihood of rehabilitation. In January, 2020 he was sentenced to two years of probation after he pleaded guilty to assault charges stemming from punching an anti-fascist protester in 2018. He was sent back to jail that October for participating in an Aug. 23 rally in the county, which was a violation of his agreement, failed to report to his probation officer and left his home state of Washington without permission. Two months later he was released and within weeks on Jan. 6, 2021, the same day as the Washington, D.C. insurrection, he was a part of a group that stormed the Washington State Governor’s mansion in Olympia. He is still facing charges for his actions there and will remain behind bars pending sentencing.
Toese’s mother and sisters were the only supporters in the audience at the trial.
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