A Lewis County Superior Court judge has sentenced the three men convicted by a jury for defacing the “Friendship Fence” in Chehalis earlier this year to 364 days in prison: the maximum sentence allotted for their cases.
“This crime cries out for the maximum. It cries out for a statement that this will not be tolerated,” Judge J. Andrew Toynbee said during a sentencing hearing for the three defendants, Frank John B. Bagley II, 40, of Seattle, Matthew A. Clement, 33, of Centralia, and Gabriel R. Smith-Nilsen, 25, of Driggs, Idaho, on Friday, Oct. 4.
Bagley, Clement and Smith-Nilsen were arrested in Centralia early in the morning on Sunday, Feb. 25, after a neighbor saw them defacing the Friendship Fence — a rainbow-colored fence — in Chehalis and followed them as they fled in a dark-colored Subaru station wagon.
The Chehalis Police Department received a call at 12:08 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 25, from the neighbor, Norman Lynn, reporting three subjects “wearing all black and ski masks” were spray painting the Friendship Fence in the 600 block of Northwest Pennsylvania Avenue.
They hid behind the house before fleeing on foot, getting into a dark-colored station wagon and fleeing northbound on Interstate 5 into Centralia. Officers with the Centralia Police Department were able to stop the suspects’ vehicle as they were trying to get onto southbound I-5 at 12:38 a.m. on Feb. 25, according to police call logs.
Officers found a stencil “covered in multicolored paint and had the words ‘Patriotfront’ as the cutout for the sign,” as well as a blue bag containing “several pieces of White Lives Matter and … literature and propaganda stickers” inside the vehicle the suspects were in when Centralia police arrested them on Feb. 25.
A Lewis County jury ruled Friday, Sept. 27 that Bagley, Clement and Smith-Nilsen were not guilty of felony hate crime charges, but were guilty of third-degree malicious mischief.
The crime is a gross misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 364 days in prison.
“This was undoubtedly a contentious case,” defense attorney Shane O’Rourke, representing Clement, said Monday.
While the jury found that the defendants did not target a specific person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, which would be required for a hate crime conviction, O’Rourke said Friday, “I think the evidence did suggest it was an attack on the social commentary and political messaging of the fence.”
O’Rourke said the fence was “unquestionably a symbol and monument” in the community, but asked the court “would we all be engaged in the same conversation” if “liberals” had vandalized a hypothetical Confederate or Trump monument in the community?
He said there was a trend of “everything in our society, including criminal justice, being motivated around political views.”
O’Rourke and fellow defense attorneys Joseph Enbody and Jakob McGhie, who represented Bagley and Smith-Nilsen, respectively, argued Friday in favor of a suspended sentence or an electronic home monitoring option for the defendants, saying such a sentence would be consistent with what they’ve seen the court sentence for third-degree malicious mischief cases in which the defendants have little to no prior criminal history.
“I hope that we don’t enter a sentence that says more about us and more about the court system than it does about these (defendants),” Enbody said.
When given the opportunity to comment on Friday, Clement said he has “no intention to get caught up in something like this again” and spoke about how he has never been accused of harassment or being hateful before.
“I’m a man who is looking forward to moving forward from this point in my life … At the very least, I hope these proceedings give all parties a sense of closure and finality, as I’m sure that is what I would like,” he said.
When given the same opportunity to speak, Bagley called the incident leading to his conviction “a silly mistake from last winter,” called the jury trial process “eye opening” and said “I don’t intend to run afoul of the law again.”
Bagley related the fence owners’ experience with the vandalism to his own experience of having a car stolen.
“They weren’t targeting me, but it was unfortunate that I had something they were after,” he said Friday, later adding, “I just hope that everyone is able to have a sense of justice and closure going forward.”
Smith-Nilsen declined to comment.
The fence’s owners, Jacquelyn and Michael Vance, spoke to the court Friday about how the Feb. 25 incident has negatively impacted their lives.
“I feel just scared in my own place of home, and it’s because of what these people have done,” Jacquelyn Vance said. “It doesn’t only hurt us; it hurts the community.”
The Vances both spoke about how, in the months since the incident, they have frequently checked on the fence and the rest of their property late at night and have been afraid to leave home for fear that something would happen.
“It felt like my home went from living in my home to defending my home,” Michael Vance said. “I’ve been on edge waiting for any sort of justification for what they did.”
When delivering his sentence on Friday, Toynbee denounced the defense’s argument that this case was comparable to other third-degree malicious cases.
“It’s unfair to say that this case should be handled the way other charges of malicious mischief should be handled,” Toynbee said. “This is not a typical case and I don’t know of any case like this … where three people come down in the dead of night dressed in black and assaulted the community.”
Toynbee went on to say that the fence was a community symbol of peace and acceptance.
“This is an attack on the ideology of acceptance and belonging,” he said.
While Toynbee said he had sympathy for Bagley specifically for being the father of six young children, he added “he should have been home with those kids when this occurred.”
The defendants have a right to appeal the jury’s conviction within 30 days.
When asked by the defense immediately after the sentencing about the possibility of having their clients released on bail pending appeal, Toynbee set the defendants’ appeal bail at $500,000.
Washington state law requires defendants posting bail pending appeal to pay at least twice the bail amount, meaning that each defendant must pay $1 million to be released.
Bagley, Clement and Smith-Nilsen were taken into custody and transported to the Lewis County Jail immediately after Friday’s sentencing hearing.
Bagley, who goes by the alias “Chad WA,” is a known neo-Nazi organizer for the White Lives Matter campaign and a former member of the Patriot Front, a white supremacist and neo-fascist hate group, according to online watchdog group WA Nazi Watch.
Bagley is also allegedly connected to the theft of 75 Pride flags in Burien in 2022.
Clement, also known as “Jack WA,” is a known member of the Patriot Front who was allegedly connected to the October 2021 destruction of the “‘Respect & Love Olympia” mural in Olympia, according to Unicorn Riot. Two members of the Patriot Front ultimately faced misdemeanor charges for the vandalism.
Chehalis residents were able to clean the black paint off of the fence before it could dry, but the Chehalis Police Department initially estimated that damage to the fence exceeded $1,500. Repair costs ultimately did not exceed $750, according to court documents.
While the three co-defendants were each initially charged with second-degree malicious mischief, a class C felony which requires damage to exceed $750, the charges were reduced to third-degree malicious mischief before trial.
The fence was previously vandalized along with three other Lewis County LGBTQ+ advocate sites in June 2023. No arrests were made in those cases.
In that instance, black paint was splattered along the entirety of the fence, which had to be fully repainted. Volunteers and supporters quickly came together to raise the necessary funds and repair the fence.
