A judge awarded a Washington D.C. Black church over $1 million this Friday after it sued the far-right group Proud Boys for tearing down and burning a Black Lives Matter banner during a protest in 2020, the Associated Press reported.
The group was also barred from coming near the church the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church for five years. The ruling came down by default since no one representing the Proud Boys showed up to court to fight the case.
The incident took place during rallies that were being held just after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. The church sued the group its leaders alleging they violated D.C. and federal law by trespassing and destroying religious property in a bias-related conspiracy.
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio admitted to setting fire to a banner that came from Asbury United Methodist Church. Tarrio pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor criminal charges of property destruction and attempted possession of a high-capacity magazine in 2021 and was sentenced to over five months in jail.
He and other members were separately convicted of seditious conspiracy In relation to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
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