A Lewis County jury has found the three men arrested earlier this year for defacing the “Friendship Fence” in Chehalis not guilty of hate crime charges.
The jury did rule to convict the three men, Frank John B. Bagley II, 40, of Seattle, Matthew A. Clement, 33, of Centralia, and Gabriel R. Smith-Nilsen, 25, of Driggs, Idaho, of third-degree malicious mischief.
The charge is a gross misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 364 days in prison.
The three-day trial began on Wednesday, Sept. 25, and ended Friday, Sept. 27.
Bagley and Clement , who have been out of custody since posting bail on Feb. 26, were remanded into custody on Friday following the jury’s verdict.
They will remain in custody until their sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 4.
Smith-Nilsen was not remanded into custody, his attorney confirmed Friday.
For a hate crime conviction in this case, state law required the prosecution to prove that the defendants did “intentionally and maliciously, and based on perception of another person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, cause physical damage to the property of another person or the victim,” according to court documents.
For a malicious mischief conviction, the prosecution had to prove the defendants did “knowingly and maliciously cause physical damage to the property of another.”
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 in Chehalis and followed them as they fled in a dark-colored Subaru station wagon.
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.
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.
