A man who slugged his Gay neighbor in Chula Vista and jumped bail here was arrested last week in Europe after doing anti-Semitic protests outside the historical Anne Frank house.
Robert Frank Wilson, 41, still has a $50,000 warrant outstanding for his arrest when he failed to show up for trial in Chula Vista Superior Court on a felony charge of committing a hate crime due to sexual orientation.
Wilson’s whereabouts were unknown until it was learned of his involvement in a protest of a laser projection onto the facade of the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam.
Several dozen news outlets, including KFMB-TV Channel 8 and Back2Stonewall.com, reported Wilson’s involvement and arrest last week. He was also shown protesting outside the Auschwitz Memorial in Poland, holding anti-Semitic signs outside the entrance.
It is a crime in 16 European countries to deny that the Holocaust occurred – i.e., that 6 million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s that led to World War II.
Wilson projected a statement onto the Anne Frank House that said “Anne Frank, inventor of the ballpoint pen” via a laser. This is a debunked theory that some have suggested that the young Jewish girl could not have written her diary because some of it was written in ink.
“After the projection, the Amsterdam detective department started an investigation in which the suspect soon came into their sights,” according to a police statement.
Wilson fled to Poland “immediately after the laser-projection,” according to police. Amsterdam detectives traveled to Poland on April 24th to join Polish police to search Wilson’s home and participate in the arrest.
“We thank the police for finding and arresting the suspect, and justice will take its course,” said Ronald Leopold, director of the Anne Frank Foundation.
“Anne Frank’s diary is one of the most important testimonies to the persecution of the Jews during World War II,” said Leopold. “The projection is an attack on the veracity of the diary and a hate crime.”
No decision has yet been made as to whether Wilson will be extradited to the Netherlands for the Anne Frank incident.
Wilson never showed up for trial in the hate crime case here, which is why he has the outstanding warrant.
Wilson was also charged with a misdemeanor count of displaying a large anti-Semitic poster on the fence of an Interstate 805 overpass on Dec. 21, 2021. However, that charge was dismissed by a judge after info about it was presented in court.
