Tusitala John Toese (born June 4, 1996)[4] also known as Tiny, is an American convicted felon.[5] He is a member[6][7][8] of the Proud Boys, a far-right group that engages in political violence in the United States. He was, and still is, a member of the Portland area far-right group Patriot Prayer, prior to joining the Proud Boys[9][7] and has been convicted of multiple criminal charges for violence at rallies.[10][11] On July 21, 2023, he was sentenced to 95 months in prison after being convicted of several assault charges.
Toese at a Patriot Prayer rally in Seattle, Washington in 2017
Toese, a resident of Vancouver, Washington[12] became involved with the far right group Patriot Prayer in 2017.[13] He is originally from American Samoa.[14][5][15] Toese, a friend of Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson, punched a man in the face during a Portland, Oregon rally in Chapman Square on May 13, 2017.[4][16] Described as "a regular presence at alt-right events in Portland throughout the year", Toese was detained and first cited for a crime at a rally for Patriot Prayer in August 2017.[17] He was then arrested at another Patriot Prayer rally on December 9, 2017, after he struck a counter protester in the face.[18] He was convicted of harassment stemming from the fight at the December 2017 rally in downtown Portland.[10]
Toese is affiliated with both Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys.[16] In January 2018, he led a group of Proud Boys in a counter protest at the 2018 Women's March in Seattle alongside members of Patriot Prayer.[8] The Proud Boys, some wearing shirts that targeted feminists as "parasites of the patriarchy", shouted misogynistic slurs at the women attending the event.[8]
In May 2018, when in the company of several Proud Boys members, Toese was filmed getting into a physical altercation with a teenager at the Vancouver Mall in Clark County, Washington before security officers intervened and separated them.[20]
Toese appeared at a Patriot Prayer rally in August 2018 wearing a shirt printed with "Pinochet was right" and RWDS,[21] shorthand used by the Proud Boys for "right wing death squad".[22] The following month, he traveled to Austin, Texas with Gibson for a "Free Alex Jones" demonstration (an event protesting the removal of Jones, a conspiracy theorist and radio host, from several social media platforms) where police removed Toese after he threatened bystanders.[16]
The BBC reported that by March 2019, Toese had been arrested 18 times, on charges including assault, harassment and disorderly conduct.[23]
Toese was indicted by a grand jury[10] and charged with assault following a June 8, 2018, incident in Portland, Oregon[24] that left a man with "stitches and a concussion".[25] He was arrested on October 4, 2019, at Portland International Airport when returning from American Samoa.[10] He was charged with felony assault.[12]
He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in January 2020 and was barred from attending protests for two years.[20] In June 2020, Toese was filmed engaging in a fight outside Seattle's Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) zone.[25][26][27]
In October 2020, Toese was sentenced to six months in jail for a probation violation[28] related to the 2018 conviction for misdemeanor assault.[29]
Toese was among the speakers at a Proud Boys event in Portland dubbed "The Summer of Love" on August 22, 2021, that ended in a brawl in the Parkrose neighborhood with shots fired in downtown Portland. Proud Boys and anti-fascist counter protesters deployed bear mace and shot paintballs at each other. After they flipped over a white van and smashed the windows out, the Proud Boys including Toese were observed shooting paintballs at people while driving around the suburban, residential Parkrose neighborhood.[30]
Toese was reportedly shot in the ankle during an anti COVID lockdown protest in Olympia, Washington on September 4, 2021.[7][31]
On September 10, 2021, he appeared at an anti-mask demonstration at Skyview High School in Vancouver, Washington alongside Gibson.[32]
December 2021 arrest and conviction
Toese was arrested in December 2021 in connection with the August rally in East Portland which occurred earlier that same year.[11] He was extradited from Washington to Oregon and charged with three counts of second-degree assault with a weapon, two counts of third-degree assault, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon, two counts of riot and two counts of first-degree criminal mischief in Multnomah County Circuit Court.[33]
Toese was released from county jail on bail around June 8, 2022, and court records from November 15, 2022, allege that he was not returning calls to his pre-trial release officer and had let his GPS ankle monitor go dead.[34]
On March 2, 2023, Toese was found guilty on two counts each of second-degree assault with a weapon, third-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, riot and first-degree criminal mischief. One count of second-degree assault was dropped.[1] Under Oregon's Measure 11 guidelines, second-degree assault is a felony carrying a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and 10 months in state prison.[35] On July 21, 2023, a judge sentenced Toese to 95 months in prison.[2] As of August 29, 2023, he was being held at the Snake River Correctional Institution, with his earliest possible release date set for April 30, 2030.[3]
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