Jury Finds “Unite the Right” Organizers Liable For Damages

The men behind the Charlottesville rally that lead to violence and death have been found financially liable by a jury in Virginia.

NPR:

A jury in Virginia has found a group of white nationalists who organized the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville liable of engaging in a conspiracy ahead of the violent demonstration, awarding the plaintiffs who brought the case more than $25 million in damages.

But after three days of deliberation, jurors could not reach a verdict on two federal conspiracy charges over whether organizers conspired to commit racially motivated violence or whether they had knowledge of it and failed to prevent it. Both felonies fall under a federal civil statute known as the KKK Act.

Richard Spencer, Jason Kessler and Christopher Cantwell and other white supremacists and neo-Nazis, were order to pay the nine plaintiffs in the civil trial millions in compensatory and punitive damages for physical and emotional injuries.

The plaintiffs — all residents or former residents of Charlottesville — sued a group of two dozen white nationalist activists and organizations in federal court. They alleged that the organizers and participants of the rally conspired to commit violence and interfered with their 13th Amendment right to be free from racially-motivated violence.

Over the course of the two-day rally in August 2017, neo-Nazi James Fields Jr. drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring dozens of others. Four of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit say they were hit in the car attack, while others say they continue to suffer from deep psychological distress from the incident.

Almost half of the damages awarded by the jury was against Fields, who is now serving a life sentence for murder. He was among those named in the lawsuit as defendants. Kessler, a main organizer of the rally, was also named. Other well-known white nationalists and white supremacists including Spencer, Cantwell, Andrew Anglin, Matthew Heimbach and others were also named as defendants.

The nonprofit Integrity First for America backed the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs alleged that the nighttime march, where some 300 white supremacists held lit torches, was meant to evoke fear similar to Ku Klux Klan and Nazi marches. At one point, white supremacists encircled counterprotesters and some clashes occurred. Some of the plaintiffs were present and say they were terrified for their lives.

The Charlottesville residents sought $7-10 million in damages, while others involved asked for $3-5 million.

The defendants tried to distance themselves from Fields in testimony, and said they engaged in violence only when they were attacked.