A jury has awarded $25 million to nine people who were injured during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
After three days of deliberation, the 11-person jury found the defendants were liable for assault, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, NBC News reports. During the four weeks of testimony, plaintiffs said they have been dealing with trauma and massive medical bills since the rally, detailing the carnage and the physical and emotional suffering that happened due to the demonstration.
The defendants in the lawsuit, called Sines v. Kessler, include Jason Kessler, the rally’s lead organizer, and Richard Spencer, a white nationalist and prominent figure behind the “alt-right.” The defense argued during testimony that they were using their First Amendment rights when they arranged and took part in the rally.
While the jury agreed on financial compensation, they haven’t yet settled on allegations that the two dozen defendants were part of a conspiracy to commit racial violence. The jury remained deadlocked in claims of a federal “conspiracy to interfere with civil rights” and “action for neglect to prevent.”
The jury did agree that all of the defendants were involved in the conspiracy so that it breached Virginia civil law—and that the defendants were harassing and being violent towards the plaintiffs. The ruling worked against the defendants’ claim that because the violence at the rally was unplanned, the organizers aren’t culpable.
Text messages, social media posts, and Discord conversations were used as evidence, showing that the organizers were preparing for the two-day rally. During the event, James Alex Fields Jr. ended up driving his car into the crowd, killing a civil rights activist and injuring dozens more, four of whom are plaintiffs.
