A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a transgender man and former member of a neo-Nazi group will not face prison time due to his childhood traumas, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
“A federal judge declined to impose prison time on a former member of a neo-Nazi ring that threatened journalists, finding the 21-year-old — who concealed his transgender identity from his co-conspirators — had already suffered enough in his young life.” https://t.co/AcDTPCa86k
— Amarnath Amarasingam (@AmarAmarasingam) April 1, 2021
Taylor Parker-Dipeppe, 21, of Spring Hill, Florida, was a member of the Atomwaffen Division, a white supremacy group associated with several killings, the AP reported. Members of the group left Swastika posters with notes reading “You have been visited by your local Nazis” at the homes of journalists in Florida, Arizona and Washington state, according to the AP.
In September 2020, Parker-Dipeppe pleaded guilty to conspiracy to send intimidating communications and to commit cyberstalking, the AP reported. (RELATED: Neo-Nazi Conspired To Threaten Jewish Journalist For Exposing Anti-Semitism, Sentenced To 16 Months, DOJ Says)
“None of us have suffered the difficult situation this defendant has endured as a result of his gender identity confusion … Enough’s enough,” U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour of Seattle said in Wednesday’s virtual court hearing.
Parker-Dipeppe’s attorney Peter Mazzone said prison time would devastate the client who suffered mistreatment from school bullies, an abusive father and an alcoholic stepfather, the AP reported.
Originally from New Jersey, Parker-Dipeppe knew at age 5 he would be a boy, but the father threw away the “boy clothes” the mother had purchased, Mazzone wrote in a sentencing memo, according to the AP. Parker-Dipeppe eventually moved to Florida to live with the mother and her physically abusive husband, according to the AP.
“This led him to just seek acceptance, and unfortunately he found it from these knuckleheads,” Mazzone said, referring to the group of teen boys who constituted the Florida Atomwaffen white supremacy group, the AP reported.