Charles Dyer: Oath Keeper, Teabagger, Ex-Marine Convicted of Raping Seven-Year-Old Daughter
A crime doesn’t get much more sickening than this, nor does a criminal get much scarier — nor more right-wing — than 31-year-old Charles Allan Dyer.
The Oath Keepers are a group of “patriots” — mostly military types — formed in 2009. Their members will tell you their only goal is to protect the United States Constitution, and to refuse any “illegal orders.” What they appear to be is a paramilitary group, a self-appointed militia, which more than resembles the completely off-the-hook “Sovereign” movement.
The Oath Keepers’ leader, Stewart Rhodes, wrote Ryan Lenz in 2011, has defended “paranoid fears” about “orders to put American citizens in prison camps and impose martial law” as “mere theoretical worries.” But, Lenz writes, “the reality is that all the things the Oath Keepers fear — martial law, foreign troops, the collapse of paper money, the internment of liberty-loving Americans in concentration camps — are longstanding conspiracy theories that are central to the ideology of the Patriot movement.”
Or, more specifically , the “Sovereign” movement. The significance of Rhodes employing such dog-whistles as “The hour is late, and our Constitution hangs by a thread” will not be lost on anyone who has even an inkling of what the “Sovereign” movement is all about. (And every genuinely patriotic American should have more than just an inkling — this ideology is chilling, and too many of its adherents are not merely crazy, but extremely dangerous.)
Charles Dyer is an Oath Keeper, who posted threatening, anti-government rants on YouTube under the username “July4Patriot.” He’s also a member of the (usually nonviolent, but equally paranoid and unreasonable) Tea Party. He was also a U.S. Marine.
No doubt none of these groups wants anything to do with him now (the Oath Keepers, in particular, has been scrambling to distance themselves from him; never mind that an “online magazine called Hate Trackers unearthed a written plea to Oath Keeper members from Rhodes that was sent out just days ahead of Dyer’s appearance at the [2009 Fourth of July Oklahoma Tea Party] event,” in which “Rhodes said Dyer would represent the organization”) since he was charged with stealing a grenade launcher.
But that’s not what he was wanted for when an APB went out on Dyer last summer (the grenade-launcher charge was dismissed): Dyer was facing charges of raping and sodomizing a seven-year-old girl — his own daughter.
He’d already been twice tried, and twice freed due to mistrials (the first time because the jury couldn’t come to a decision, and the second when the D.A. goofed by sending out juror surveys prematurely).
A third trial was scheduled for August of 2011. When Dyer failed to show — going on the lam after burning down his own house (or having his girlfriend do it) — the FBI placed him on its “Ten Most Wanted” list and threw out a nationwide dragnet. He was captured in Texas after a week of literally living in the bushes, when he came out of hiding to succumb to a craving for a cherry drink from a Sonic drive-in.
On April 23, 2012, Dyer was convicted of child sexual abuse. Formal sentencing of 30 years has been scheduled for June 5, 2012.
Naturally, “Dyer claimed the charges were brought against him as ‘part of a federal government conspiracy’ because of his political views.”
More reading:
• “As ‘Tea Parties’ lose steam, fringe conspiracists step up to the fore,” David Neiwert, Crooks and Liars, July 6, 2009
• “Responses to Militia Report: A Sampling,” Rob Waters, SPLC Hatewatch, August 13, 2009
• “Oath Keepers organizer sees need to sound an alarm,” Richard Fausset, Los Angeles Times, September 18, 2009
• “‘Oath Keepers’ Leader Arrested for Child Rape; Cops Find Stolen Grenade Launcher In His House,” David Neiwert, Crooks and Liars, January 21, 2010
• “Former Marine With Ties To Right-Wing Movements Charged With Child Rape, Possessing Grenade Launcher,” Zachary Roth, TPMMuckraker, January 22, 2010
• “Oath Keepers Chief Denies Accused Rapist Was Member,” Larry Keller, SPLC Hatewatch, January 22, 2010
• “Oath Keepers and the Age of Treason,” Justine Sharrock, Mother Jones, March 6, 2010
• “The Tea Party’s Military Wing,” Mother Jones, 2010
• “Oath Keepers Group Battered by Members’ Arrests,” SPLC Intelligence Report, Fall 2010
• “Oklahoma Ex-Marine Sparks Nationwide Manhunt,” Dana Hertneky, News 9, August 15, 2011
• “Charles Dyer: Teabagger, Oathkeeper, Fugitive,” One People’s Project, August 15, 2011
• “$500,000 bond set for AWOL Dyer,” Marlow Review, August 15, 2011
• “Nationwide manhunt underway for Charles Dyer,” KSWO, August 15, 2011
• “Search Continues for Ex-Marine Tied to Oath Keepers,” Ryan Lenz, SPLC Hatewatch, August 17, 2011
• “Manhunt On For Ex-Marine Oathkeeper Accused Of Rape,” Jillian Rayfield, TPMMuckraker, August 17, 2011
• “Ex-Marine and Fugitive Tied to Oath Keepers Arrested,” Bill Morlin, SPLC Hatewatch, August 25, 2011
• “Ex-Marine Charles Dyer Captured in Texas,” Colleen Curry, ABC News, August 25, 2011
• “Oklahoma Oath Keeper Convicted of 6-Year-Old Daughter’s Rape,” Ryan Lenz, SPLC Hatewatch, April 20, 2012
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He looks like a psycho….what is the deal with these far-right people getting in sex scandals? Why do they always run toward the grotesque?