Neo-Nazi Leader Matthew Heimbach Arrested For Domestic Violence
Paoli, IN – Felony charges have been filed today against Matthew Heimbach, the leader of the neo-Nazi Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP). Online court filings show a new case, ‘State of Indiana v. Matthew W. Heimbach,’ and a police report lists four charges of strangulation, intimidation, domestic battery committed in the presence of a child less than 16 years old, and simple battery.
The assault victim in the case is reported to be Matthew’s wife, Brooke, with whom he has two children. Brooke is the step-daughter of Matthew Parrott, also known as David Parrott, who served as Heimbach’s second-in-command in the Traditionalist Worker Party.
The incident reportedly erupted overnight after Matthew Parrott discovered Heimbach having an affair with his wife, Jessica Parrott. A local news video stated that Matthew Parrott fled to a local Walmart at which point he called law enforcement claiming that he had been attacked by both his wife Jessica and Heimbach. Parrott brought the police to Heimbach’s residence, where an officer claims she heard scuffling, and after going inside she was informed by his wife Brooke that Heimbach had attacked her in front of their children. Police arrested Heimbach immediately and booked him in the Orange County jail.
Court records show that Heimbach is currently free after paying a $1000 cash bond. As the leader of the Traditionalist Worker Party he has been campaigning to try to build a white nationalist power base in Tennessee, however this new felony case suggests that Heimbach will be required to stay within the state of Indiana for the foreseeable future.
Matthew Parrott has since announced his resignation from the Traditionalist Worker Party, for which he had often served as a media spokesperson.
The group’s official website, for which Parrott was the systems administrator, went offline on Tuesday afternoon and is still down as of the time of this writing.
The TWP is a key component of the Nationalist Front, a coalition of openly white supremacist groups who have tried to capitalize on the so-called “alt-right” movement in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The Nationalist Front also includes the National Socialist Movement, the League of the South, as well as Vanguard America, a group associated with James Alex Fields, who killed Heather Heyer with his car in Charlottesville, VA in August 2017. Heimbach has been a major public figure at Nationalist Front events, such as the neo-Nazi rally that was held in Pikeville, Kentucky on April 29, 2017. While covering the events in Pikeville, we briefly questioned Heimbach, who freely spoke of his admiration for Hitler and re-affirmed his statement that people in inter-racial relationships should be placed in “reeducation camps.”
"Do you think Hitler was a good person?"
Matt Heimbach, Traditionalist Worker Party: "Yes."#Pikeville,KY, 4/29/17https://t.co/jxMx2Oloxq pic.twitter.com/TzOjRkSY3E
— UNICORN RIOT (@UR_Ninja) May 1, 2017
Matthew Heimbach was also charged for assaulting a black woman named Kashiya Nwanguma at a Donald Trump campaign rally in Louisville, Kentucky in March 2016. Heimbach later took a plea deal in the Kentucky assault case. It is unclear if his new felony domestic violence charges in Indiana violate the terms of his plea deal in Kentucky. The judge had granted him a two-year suspended sentence on the condition that he did not break the law for two years. He has an upcoming probation hearing in Kentucky on June 1.
After a rally in Shelbyville, Tennessee last October, a group of TWP members including Heimbach assaulted an interracial couple in a barfight. Last week, Heimbach was seen alongside other TWP members engaging in fistfights outside Richard Spencer’s speaking event at Michigan State University.
Heimbach’s arrest is the latest in a string of domestic violence incidents involving white supremacists. Scholars, feminists, and abuse survivor advocates have long pointed out the connections between militant white supremacy and abuse against women. A recent episode of the podcast Feminist Currents explored how the modern white supremacist movement is widely implicated in violence against women:
First of all, we know the driver in Charlottesville, James Alex, had been charged with assaulting his mother. So there is a direct link between his misogynistic behaviour and racism. He displayed that he’s both a misogynist and a white supremacist. In a larger discussion, male supremacy and white supremacy are premised on very similar ideas: that women and non-whites are inferior.”
After news broke of Matthew Heimbach’s arrest, Unicorn Riot spoke with Daryle Lamont Jenkins of the anti-racist group One People’s Project, who has been tracking Heimbach’s activities for many years.
The lack of value Heimbach and others within neo-Nazi circles give to women makes this episode particularly unsurprising, especially given how often it happens within those circles. And remember Heimbach attacked a Black woman at a Trump rally in Kentucky, something that is still hanging over his head because the judge told him he cannot reoffend within two years when he pled guilty to that in July.” – Daryle Lamont Jenkins
Further hearings are expected to take place in Heimbach’s case; we will provide updates as more information becomes available.
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