Crime & Safety
Man Pleads Guilty To Inciting Riot In Berkeley
He was founder of the Rise Above Movement, described as a mixed martial arts fighting group of new nationalist and white supremacy.
BERKELEY, CA — A Southern California man linked to a white supremacy extremist group involved in a protest in Berkeley in 2017 pleaded guilty last week to engaging in riots at political rallies across California.
Robert Rundo, 34, of Huntington Beach, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the federal Anti-Riot Act.
Rundo was founder of the Rise Above Movement, or RAM, which described itself as a mixed martial arts fighting group of the new nationalist and white supremacy identity movement.
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According to prosecutors, Rundo and his crew attended rallies with the intent to provoke and engage in violence.
In 2017, Rundo helped organize a training for RAM members in anticipation of a rally in Berkeley on April 15.
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The rally pitted pro- and anti-Trump protesters against each other at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, leading to the arrest of at least 20 people. Eleven people were injured and seven of those were taken to hospitals, according to police.
At the Berkeley rally, Rundo and several of his co-conspirators crossed a police barrier erected to separate the two political groups.
"They then punched and kicked several people," the U.S. Attorney's Office said, adding that, following the rally, "Rundo and his co-conspirators ... posted online photographs and videos celebrating the assaults they had committed."
Rundo is also connected to assaults at rallies in San Bernardino and Huntington Beach, violent images of which the group posted on social media afterwards.
A federal judge initially threw out charges against Rundo, who was first indicted in 2018, but appellate judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated them and he was extradited out of Romania in 2023.
Rundo is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 13 and is facing up to five years in federal prison, prosecutors said.
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