Skinhead stumble: Unrelated domestic battery charge for man believed to have taken part in violent Capitol rally

The man who became a doxing target following a June 26 clash between neo-Nazis and protesters in which he was believed to play a violent role remained in an El Dorado County jail cell Tuesday, nearly three weeks after his arrest on domestic violence charges.

Derik Ryan Punneo, 26, of Patterson, is being held at the Placerville jail on one misdemeanor charge of domestic battery and on what’s called a flash incarceration hold, for violating the conditions of his release, according to the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office’s website. His bail stands at $27,500 for the battery charge, the website shows.

Punneo was arrested August 24 in the El Dorado Hills subdivision where his girlfriend resides, said El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Jim Byers.

Byers said the female victim called authorities and alleged Punneo had accosted her. “Her injuries were consistent with her story,” said Byers, who described the battery as minor and Punneo’s arrest as routine. Punneo and the victim were in “a dating relationship,” Byers said.

Punneo, an admitted skinhead, was convicted in San Joaquin County in 2009 of participating in a criminal street gang and resisting arrest, according to online court records. A little more than two months ago, he attended the Capitol rally organized by the Traditionalist Worker Party, a self-described political party favored by white nationalists and neo-Nazis. The rally turned violent when demonstrators turned out to protest the advertised recruitment effort, which the California Highway Patrol had permitted. At least 10 people were injured, including five who were stabbed.

A photograph of Punneo holding a knife at the rally quickly spread through social media.

No arrests have been made and the investigation into the mass-casualty affair remains ongoing, a CHP spokeswoman told SN&R on Tuesday.

Punneo and girlfriend Manda Boone briefly became associated with a local “Blue Lives Matter” effort last month, when two Sacramento television stations featured their role in a campaign to honor law enforcement by tying blue ribbons in Folsom and El Dorado Hills.