Oklahoma man allegedly involved in planning Charlottesville rally

Tulsa World harrison.grimwood@ tulsaworld.com

CLAREMORE — A Marine with ties to Claremore allegedly participated in organizing the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that culminated in one person’s death and multiple injuries.

Michael Joseph Chesny, 36, allegedly used the pseudonym “Tyrone” to assist in organizing the rally in 2017, Al Jazeera reports. Chesny, according to court records and Tulsa World archives, is from Claremore. Chesny was ousted from the Marine Corps this month amid allegations that he was one of two Marines who unfurled a white supremacist flag last May in Graham, North Carolina, according to Marine Corps records. He received a general discharge after more than 10 years in the service.

“Tyrone,” alleged to be Chesny, posted more than 1,000 times in a Discord server, a chat service, in the months leading up to the Charlottesville rally held Aug. 12, 2017. The city became a target for white nationalists after the city’s council voted to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a downtown park.

Several smaller rallies preceded the Aug. 12 event in Charlottesville. On that day, those opposing the statue’s removal and counter-demonstrators converged downtown. Several fights broke out and persisted until the event was disbanded, and a car drove into a crowd of counterdemonstrators who were marching through a downtown street. That car killed Heather Heyer, 32, and injured many more.

“Is it legal to run over protesters blocking roadways?” Tyrone posted on the Discord server in July, the month before Heyer was killed.

Other posts from Tyrone indicate that he helped organize the logistics of transportation to and from the Charlottesville event. The more than 1,200 posts — according to Unicorn Riot’s leaks of the posts — were time-stamped from June to Aug. 14.

A spokesman for the Marine Corps said the revelations reported by Al Jazeera were “immaterial” to Chesny’s general discharge. Nat Fahy, Marine Corps Installations East spokesman, told the Tulsa World that Chesny’s general discharge “was already being processed” in connection with the May 20 events in North Carolina.

“Association or participation with hate or extremist groups of any kind is directly contradictory to the core values of honor, courage, and commitment that we stand for as Marines and isn’t tolerated by the Marine Corps,” Fahy said in a prepared statement.

Fahy also said substantiated incidents of misconduct in that vein are violations of Department of Defense and Marine Corps orders “and will lead to mandatory processing for separation.”

“Bottom line, there is no place for racial hatred or extremism in the Marine Corps because our strength is derived from the individual excellence of every Marine regardless of background,” Fahy said in the statement, referencing the North Carolina incident.

For the majority of his service, Chesny was an infantryman. He separated from the corps at the rank of sergeant and as an explosive ordnance disposal technician. He was last stationed at Havelock, North Carolina.

Chesny entered the service through the Oklahoma City Military Entrance Processing Station.

Tyrone made dozens of posts in the days following the Charlottesville rally, including at least one post that disparages Heyer, the woman who was killed there. The posts also include references to the Graham, North Carolina, incident that led to Chesny’s general discharge; Tyrone’s connections to Tulsa and Oklahoma City; and a slew of racial epithets.

Tyrone told others online days after the May 20 incident that he had been “caught” hanging a banner from the top of a building. Fahy states that Chesny “engaged” in white supremacist activities that day with another Marine, leading to his separation from the Corps, in Graham, North Carolina.

In early June, Tyrone posted a photo of a banner that states “He who controls the past controls the future.” Tyrone wrote that the photograph and banner were in Graham, North Carolina. Battle, Jessica v. Samuel C. Sr. Burdine, Victoria v. Mitchell, Anthony J.

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