A man linked to white supremacist movements pleaded guilty on Monday to setting a fire that destroyed an office at a historic social justice center in Tennessee, a court document shows.

Regan Prater also pleaded guilty to attempting to aid a foreign terrorist organization for efforts to provide the militant group Hezbollah "a list of personally identifiable information for individuals purportedly affiliated with the government of Israel," according to a criminal information filed in February.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 9 in Knoxville.

A public defender representing Prater did not immediately respond to an email and phone message requesting comment.

Prater was arrested last April in connection with the arson at the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market. The arrest came more than six years after the March 2019 blaze, which caused more than $1.2 million in damage, prosecutors say.

An affidavit filed in federal court in East Tennessee last year said Prater's posts in several group chats affiliated with white supremacist organizations connected him to the crime. In one private message, a witness who sent screenshots to the FBI asked a person authorities believe was Prater whether he set the fire.

"I'm not admitting anything," the person using the screen name 'Rooster' wrote. But he later went on to describe exactly how the fire was set with "a sparkler bomb and some Napalm."

A white-power symbol was spray-painted on the pavement near the site of the fire. The affidavit describes it as a "triple cross" and says it was also found on one of the firearms used by a shooter who killed 51 people at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 15, 2019, about two weeks before the Highlander fire.

Prater was initially charged in 2025 with one count of arson. On Monday, the previous indictment was dismissed in favor of the criminal information filed in February which included the charge related to the Lebanese group Hezbollah. In a plea agreement filed the following day in February, the government agreed that a sentence of no more than 20 years was appropriate.

Prater was previously sentenced to five years in federal prison for setting a fire in June 2019 at an adult video and novelty store in East Tennessee. He pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay $106,000 in restitution in that case. At the scene of that fire, investigators found a cellphone they later determined belonged to Prater. The phone included a short video showing a person inside the store lighting an accelerant, according to the affidavit.

Gary Scott recently was successful in obtaining summary judgment in a state court medical malpractice action filed against a nursing home client of Hirst Applegate. The case arose from an incident in which a resident of the nursing home was inadvertently administered the wrong medication, causing the resident to be hospitalized. Subsequently, after discharge from the hospital the resident passed away, with the immediate cause of death being cancer. However during discovery plaintiff`s expert witness testified that it was his opinion within a reasonable degree of medical probability that the medication error hastened the resident`s death to some extent. Based upon that testimony a motion for summary judgment was filed, which argued that under Wyoming law if a person`s death is caused by the alleged wrongful act of another, the sole remedy is an action for wrongful death. The plaintiff in this instance had not brought a wrongful death case, but instead had filed a survival action. The Court found that since the plaintiff`s proof was that the former resident`s death had been hastened by the medication error, the sole remedy was a wrongful death action. The Court dismissed the plaintiff`s complaint with prejudice. 

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Dale Cottam has been selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2009 edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the specialties of Administrative Law, Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law and Real Estate Law.

For over a quarter of a century, Best Lawyers has been regarded - by both the profession and the public - as the definitive guide to legal excellence in the United States. Selection to Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive and rigorous peer-review survey comprising more than 2.5 million confidential evaluations of the top attorneys in the country.

Mr. Cottam`s practice is focused primarily in the areas of public utilities, energy law, creditors` rights, and real estate. He has extensive experience representing utility clients and consumer groups before the Public Service Commission where he has handled numerous contested case hearings through final decision and appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court. Mr. Cottam also represents business and real estate clients in numerous arbitrations and bench trials in state courts throughout Wyoming.

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