LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Las Vegas judge called an accused leader of a plot to spark violence during recent Las Vegas protests by firebombing an electric power substation a threat to public safety and refused to reduce his $1 million bail.
Evidence against Stephen Parshall is “overwhelming,” Justice of the Peace Diana Sullivan said Tuesday, and a prosecutor called the 35-year-old Las Vegas man an extreme danger to the community, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported .
Parshall’s co-defendants Andrew Lynam, 23, and William Loomis, 43, also are being held on $1 million bail. Each is due in federal court June 15 and local court June 17.
They were arrested May 30 while allegedly filling gasoline-and-glass-bottle firebombs on the way to a protest of the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes.
Documents filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas tie the three men to the right-wing extremist “boogaloo” movement, a loosely organized internet-rooted network of gun enthusiasts expressing support for overthrowing the U.S. government.
Parshall’s attorney, Robert Draskovich, said his client intends to plead not guilty and questioned accounts of a confidential police informant in the case.
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