On the lam: Santa Rosa native and Capitol rioter now seeking political asylum in Belarus
Debbie Neumann is a proud mother and, these days, a defensive one.
That explains her Dec. 14 email to a Press Democrat reporter, admonishing him to “get your story right.”
A longtime Santa Rosa resident and widow of renowned hotelier Claus Neumann, she was displeased by an article the previous day on their 49-year-old son Evan Neumann, whose face now appears on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.
On Dec. 10, Evan Neumann was indicted on charges of assaulting law enforcement and other crimes during the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol. He is the only person from Sonoma County believed to have a participated in the insurrection, which unfolded when a mob stormed the Capitol building trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election in favor of former president Donald Trump. Five people died in the riot or in its immediate aftermath, and more than 100 police officers were injured.
“During these altercations, Neumann used not only his hands and fists to strike the officers,” according to the FBI, “he also allegedly used a metal barricade as a battering ram” against police.
Despite being indicted on 14 counts, including engaging in physical violence in a restricted building and “assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers,” Neumann has yet to appear in court.
He fled the country Feb. 16, flew to Italy and made his way to western Ukraine, where he rented an apartment for several months. Fearing extradition, he then trekked on foot through forests and swampland, braving quicksand, vipers and wild boar, he later recounted. Then he crossed into Belarus, a Russian client state ruled by Alexander Lukashenko, often described as Europe’s last dictator.
‘A different drummer’
Neumann’s willingness to appear on state television casting doubt on the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election, denouncing America as a country that no longer respects the rule of law — and a place where he is sure to be tortured if he returns — has made him a useful propaganda tool for both the Belarus and Russian governments.
In her email scolding a Press Democrat reporter, Debbie Neumann insisted that her son “is not the person you make him out to be.”
“He is a loving member of our family,” said Debbie, who later declined an interview request, “and I believe his father would be proud of him standing up for his rights.”
Others, close to the Neumann family, disagree. Claus Neumann, they point out, grew up in East Prussia under the Hitler regime. In the final months of World War II, Claus and his family became refugees, fleeing Russian soldiers. As a 19-year-old, he was accused of slander and treason against the East German state and spent three weeks in solitary confinement in a Magdeburg prison, according to his 2007 memoir, Farewell Marienburg. After his release, he escaped to West Germany, eventually immigrating to the United States, where he founded the Los Robles Lodge on Cleveland Avenue in 1962.
Evan Neumann’s actions since Jan. 6, 2021, can be viewed as a reversal and repudiation of his father’s journey. After joining a mob intent on subverting the results of a free and fair election, the son of the man who fled dictatorship in East Germany now seeks refuge from one of the most repressive, autocratic regimes in the world.
Where Claus risked much to escape the Eastern Bloc, “here’s his kid, going exactly the other way,” said Gaye LeBaron, local historian, longtime Press Democrat columnist and friend of the Neumann family.
Evan Neumann did not respond to emailed requests for an interview. Nor did his two siblings respond to emails, texts and voicemails left for them.
While “extremely intelligent,” Evan Neumann “always walked to a different drummer,” recalled John Burton, who worked for nearly three decades in various roles at the Los Robles Lodge, which closed in 2006.
“But I do wish he would come home, accept responsibility for his actions, take his punishment and use the rest of his life in a productive fashion,” he said. “I know that Claus would not be happy with him at this point. And I think Claus would be afraid for him, too.”
‘Volatile teenager’
Debbie Neumann is right. There is much, much more to her eldest son than the profane protester captured on Capitol Police bodycam footage from Jan. 6. He is a talented designer whose creations include internally lit handbags, robotic avalanche control devices and “chemical self-assembling space stations,” he shared in a 2020 interview with Design-legends.com, a website that features interviews with internationally acclaimed designers and architects.
From 1996 to 2000, Neumann was general manager of Santa Rosa’s Hotel La Rose, then owned by his parents. “He raised the level of the hotel,” his mother said in her email.