White nationalist leader Matthew Heimbach charged with domestic battery

Matt Heimbach, a white nationalist who calls Indiana home, makes his way into Emancipation Park during the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017.

An Indiana-based white nationalist leader faces charges of battery after he attacked his wife and wife's stepfather, who had accused him of having an affair, court documents say. 

Matthew Heimbach, who  helped to promote the August "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va., was accused of having the affair with the stepfather's wife, court documents say.

The stepfather, David Matthew Parrott, is also the spokesman for Heimbach's white nationalist group, the Traditionalist Worker Party.

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Heimbach's wife told police that she and Parrott discovered the affair about a week ago.

Parrott on late Monday or early Tuesday confronted Heimbach at his Paoli home. The two traded words, and Heimbach put Parrot in a headlock and choked him unconscious twice, records say.

Heimbach later grabbed his wife's cheeks while their two children were close and a police officer was there, according to documents filed in Orange Superior Court.

Heimbach, dubbed "the next David Duke" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, was charged Tuesday with one misdemeanor count of battery and one felony count of domestic battery, according to online court records. 

He was arrested early Tuesday morning on preliminary charges of battery and strangulation, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. He posted a $1,000 cash bond Tuesday.

Matthew Heimbach

Heimbach is the chairman of the Traditionalist Worker Party, which has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.  

A call Tuesday night to a phone number associated with Heimbach was directed to a full voice mailbox. 

Parrott, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center says serves as the Traditionalist Worker Party's primary spokesman, told the SPLC Tuesday that he was resigning his position but did not comment further about the incident. 

When reached by phone Tuesday night, Parrott told IndyStar he had no comment regarding the incident or his status with the organization. 

Heimbach and Parrott initially met online, where they voiced their concerns over what they considered to be a threatening shift in American demographics. 

They met in person in 2013, and soon after Heimbach moved from Maryland to Paoli, where the Parrott family lived. In 2015, Heimbach married Parrott's stepdaughter. 

Together, they formed the Traditionalist Worker Party, which focuses on the interests of white Americans who, according to the group's Facebook page, "for decades have been abandoned by the System and actively attacked by globalists and traitorous politicians."

Heimbach's Tuesday arrest could have implications for another criminal case in a Kentucky court. 

Heimbach entered a plea agreement last summer following charges stemming from an incident at a 2016 rally supporting then-presidential-candidate Donald Trump.

At a Louisville, Ky., rally, Trump urged his supporters to kick out protesters who were interrupting his speech. Heimbach, sporting a red "Make America Great Again" cap, is seen on video shoving a black woman who was in the middle of the protest and repeatedly shouting at her.

He was found guilty of one count of second-degree disorderly conduct and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, but a district judge waived the jail sentence under the condition that he not re-offend within two years. 

Heimbach was also fined $145 and ordered to anger management classes in the Kentucky case. A hearing is scheduled in that case on June 1. 

Call IndyStar reporter Holly Hays at (317) 444-6156. Follow her on Twitter: @hollyvhays.

Call Robert King at (317) 444-6089. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Call IndyStar reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @VicRyc.