Five Indiana men facing charges in a brawl with alleged white supremacists inside a Tinley Park restaurant weren’t looking for a fight, their lawyers say.
At a hearing Friday at the Cook County courthouse in Bridgeview, Judge Carmen Aguilar said prosecutors have DNA evidence that links several of the defendants to weapons recovered from Ashford House after a May 19 melee. The men were alleged to have been among a group of 18 members of an anti-racist club that appeared to set upon a table full of purported members of a racist group.
Defense lawyers had expected a ruling from Aguilar that might have led to a plea deal with prosecutors on the 37 charges against their clients. Prosecutors so far have pushed for the seven-year maximum sentence for the five Bloomington-area residents, said Brian Barrido, attorney for Dylan Sutherlin.
Sutherlin and his brothers, Cody and Jason Sutherlin, were arrested along with friends Alex R. Stuck and John S. Tucker in a traffic stop not far from the restaurant minutes after the fight. Security video of the dust-up shows a group of men, some wearing masks and carrying batons and clubs, brawling with a group seated inside the restaurant.
But, Barrido says, the DNA evidence still would not show who started the fracas, which came after weeks of online taunting between members of the Hoosier Anti-Racist Movement and members of a purported white supremacist group that was meeting at Ashford House.
“No one’s denying the defendants were at the restaurant,” Barrido said. “But my clients went to what they believed was supposed to be a peaceful protest … then a fight breaks out.”
Barrido said no evidence shows Dylan Sutherlin was in the restaurant during the fight and said his client was waiting in a car outside. Police have made no other arrests and have not asked any of the five defendants for information about other suspects, Barrido said.
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Asked why some of the “protesters” were carrying weapons and wearing masks, Barrido said, “It was meant from the very start as a peaceful protest. I have no clue why some of them had masks. I can’t tell you.”
The attorney said he expects the case will go to trial if prosecutors continue to push for a maximum sentence on the charges. James Fennerty, who is defending Cody Sutherlin, said he also is committed to seeing the case through.
“Our clients seem to be nice, working-class guys, who don’t like racists,” Fennerty said. “I don’t like racists.”
The next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 7.