Neo-Nazi group ordered to pay $10,000 to survivor of Charlottesville car attack

CHARLOTTESVILLE — An Ohio-based neo-Nazi group will pay a survivor of the Unite the Right car attack $10,000 and be removed as a defendant in a federal lawsuit.

The suit against the Traditionalist Worker Party was filed on behalf of William “Bill” Burke in May 2019 in the Southern District of Ohio U.S. District Court. Burke was among the dozens of people injured in Charlottesville in 2017 when James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism counterprotesters. Fields has since been convicted of murdering Heather Heyer and of committing federal hate crimes.

Burke, who attended the Aug. 12, 2017, rally to protest against racism, testified at both Fields’ state and federal sentencing hearings, sharing not only the physical toll the rally and car attack took on him but also the emotional and mental damage.

Burke’s lawsuit alleges that though the rally was ostensibly about a Charlottesville City Council vote to remove a downtown statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, the rally also was intended to explicitly send a message of white supremacy.

Read more: https://richmond.com/news/state-and-regional/neo-nazi-group-ordered-to-pay-10-000-to-survivor-of-charlottesville-car-attack/article_7e5b1b1d-5c7d-532c-ba86-2559734d145e.html