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A judge has sentenced Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, 26, to 95 months in prison for his involvement in a 2021 rally outside a shuttered Kmart in East Portland. (That property was the site of a catastrophic fire this week.)
He was convicted of 10 counts earlier this month. Although prosecutors didn’t prove he physically hurt anyone, he was found guilty of inciting the violence, telling the crowd, “When antifa shows up, show them no mercy,” according to a statement today from the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.
The brawl moved from the Kmart to the Parkrose High School parking lot, where Toese smashed the window of a car with a baseball bat, spurring on a group of Proud Boys who attacked the man inside. As WW reported at the time, the fight spilled out of the parking lot and the ideological foes pursued each other up Northeast 122nd Avenue, while police kept their distance.
Toese’s visits to Portland seeking to fight leftists date back to 2017, and include the 2018 assault of Tim Ledwith. He was indicted in that attack after a WW story examining why Toese hadn’t been charged. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and was ultimately sentenced to six months in jail. He was back on the street by the Proud Boys rally at the empty Kmart.
In this instance, prosecutors successfully fought to raise Toese’s sentence beyond the 70-month mandatory minimum given his “long-term involvement in violent activity.”