In Charlottesville General District Court on July 19, seven of those activists were found guilty of stepping in the road with poor visibility and fined $15. (A number of those seven had already paid their fines and did not appear).
Around 9:30pm June 8, with signs and banners in tow, several dozen activists began marching around the Downtown Mall, chanting “Corey Long did nothing wrong” and “Cops and the Klan go hand in hand.” And it wasn’t long before things got more heated.
At the west end of the mall, their procession took a right onto Ridge-McIntire, where they began spilling off of the sidewalk and onto the street, and gained the attention of several city police officers.
The cops insisted they stay off the road, and by the time the group took another right onto Market Street, more than a dozen officers were following them. Crowds drew and traffic started backing up as the demonstrators continued to scream at the officers, demanding to know why law enforcement didn’t protect them during last summer’s deadly Unite the Right rally, and refusing to get out of the roadway.
It wasn’t long before the police started arresting them, and in one instance, they hauled activist Veronica Fitzhugh off a Market Street crosswalk and into the back of a paddywagon—her dress exposing her rear and her knees scraping the ground as they dragged her.
“We are, without a doubt, living in a historic moment,” said Sara Tansey, one of the community members charged. She read a statement to the judge on behalf of all of the defendants. “History has proven to us that some laws are bad laws, and some illegal actions will fall on the right side of history.”
Tansey continued, “We believe that when a black man is sentenced to jail time for defending himself against a mob of neo-Nazis, then we are in a moment that demands each member of society to question whether the law is just and whether our actions within the system will endure the test of time.”
Civil rights attorney Jeff Fogel represented the defendants, who each entered an Alford plea, which is not an admission of guilt, but an acknowledgement that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict them.
“I like the idea that if you have civil protests, that you’re willing to pay the consequences,” said visiting Judge Steve Helvin. “I’m certainly going to find y’all guilty.”
Defendants were ordered to pay $89 in court fees along with the $15 fine.
Outside the courthouse, Fogel said his clients were satisfied with the outcome.
“They didn’t want to make a big deal out of this,” he said.
Fogel, who was also present during the late-night protest in June, criticized police for insisting the activists stay on the sidewalk as they marched down Ridge-McIntire, where he says there was no traffic. “Police lose perspective of why they’re there.”
Community activist Star Peterson, a victim of the August 12 car attack, was arrested when she parked her wheelchair in the middle of Market Street, faced traffic and threw two middle fingers into the air. Photo by Eze Amos
Last night, Charlottesville police arrested about eight community activists who were protesting yesterday’s conviction of Corey Long, the man they say defended the community on August 12 when law enforcement failed to do so.
A couple dozen activists gathered in Justice Park around 9:30pm, and with signs and banners in tow, began marching around the Downtown Mall, chanting “Corey Long did nothing wrong” and “Cops and the Klan go hand in hand.”
By the time they made it to the west end of the mall and turned right to march down Ridge McIntire Road, they had gained the attention of police in at least two vehicles and on two bikes. As some marchers spilled off the sidewalk and onto the street, police demanded they step back onto the sidewalk, nudging activist Nic McCarthy as he shouted, “Corey Long protected us! Where were you?”
Nic McCarthy. Photo by Eze Amos
McCarthy was one of the people arrested and escorted to the local jail, after their procession made it to Market Street, where they stopped traffic by, again, refusing to get out of the street.
Nearly 20 police officers were present on Market Street and the area was awash in blue and red police lights as cops and about 20 activists engaged in screaming matches. Approximately 15 other marchers immediately obeyed police and stepped out of the roadway.
Veronica Fitzhugh, a known community activist, was one who did not. She lay in the middle of a Market Street crosswalk until multiple police pulled her up from under her underarms and dragged her to one of their squad vans—her knees scraping the ground as they removed her from the street. Fitzhugh and McCarthy were also arrested for obstructing free passage at the July 8 Ku Klux Klan rally in Justice Park when they, along with several other protesters, locked arms in front of the gate that the Klan was planning to enter the park through.
Veronica Fitzhugh. Photo by Eze Amos
Police demanded that C-VILLE freelance photographer Eze Amos, who was documenting the protest and arrests, step out of the roadway. He argued that he was a journalist, and that pedestrians are allowed to walk in the crosswalk.
“I can take photos for God’s sake,” Amos said. “That’s my job.”
To that, the officer said Amos was not permitted to walk back and forth across the crosswalk while officers were arresting people there. Amos was not arrested.
Police also arrested Star Peterson, a victim of the August 12 car attack who parked her wheelchair in the middle of Market Street, facing traffic, and threw two middle fingers into the air. She was given a summons, and after eventually moving a bit further down the street, she did it again. This time, police wheeled her out of the street, and called an ambulance to haul her to jail.
Star Peterson. Photo by Eze Amos
As the remaining activists waited for the night to play out, one could be heard saying to the crowd, “Y’all want me to go to Lowe’s and get torches? They’ll let us march then.”
All activists who were taken to jail were released by 1am, according to The Daily Progress.
The other activists arrested were Eleanor Ruth Myer Sessoms, James Alan Swanson, Jenna Hochman and Keval Mandar Bhatt.
Photos by Eze Amos
Updated June 13 at 9:30am with a list of people who were arrested.
When Jason Kessler leaves a courtroom, he's often greeted the same way. Staff photo
When Jason Kessler leaves a courthouse in Charlottesville, he’s usually greeted the same way, and that’s by an angry mob.
A group of dozens of anti-racists followed him in a large circle around Market Street until he receded to the police department next to the general district court. He exited only when a maroon truck showed up to pick him up.
All the while, African-American counterprotesters, who reminded him that February is Black History Month, shouted a slogan that’s quite familiar to him. One that he’s even used once or twice—“You will not replace us! You will not replace us! You will not replace us!”
Kessler was in court February 2 for five different hearings in which he claimed to be the victim.
Throughout the morning, known anti-racist activist Veronica Fitzhugh, Phoebe Stevens, Jeff Winder, Brandon Collins and Kenneth Robert Litzenberger were defended as they stood in front of the judge and across from the organizer of the summer’s deadly Unite the Right rally.
Fitzhugh was first, and while Judge Robert Downer dismissed an assault charge that stemmed from an apparent May 20 altercation with Kessler on the Downtown Mall, she was found guilty of disorderly conduct for being a member of the mob that surrounded the white nationalist and his friends that night. In video evidence, Fitzhugh, wearing a pink wig, can be seen shouting “Nazi, go home,” in close proximity to Kessler’s earlobe.
“You have to take this kind of abuse with a grain of salt,” Kessler said when defense attorney Jeff Fogel asked why he was smiling during the video.
Special prosecutor Michael Caudill, who was appointed to the case, said “Kessler exhibited decorum.”
Downer said Fitzhugh’s actions met the objective standard of disorderly conduct and found the woman—who wore a hot pink dress with the work “antifa” scrawled across the back—guilty. She was fined $250, with $200 suspended.
Outside the courthouse, her attorney said, “All she was doing was telling him the truth—that he was a Nazi.”
After her hearing, four people appeared whom Kessler has accused of assaulting him at his August 13 press conference in front of City Hall, where he was unable to be heard over the angry crowd that eventually swarmed him and tackled him to the ground.
Stevens was the tackler, but says that wasn’t her intention.
“We love you, Jason,” were her last words before she took him to the ground, according to her own testimony and that of a freelance photographer at the event.
Stevens, a French teacher in the public school system who also teaches rock climbing and yoga, says she practices peaceful intervention. On August 12, she could be found using her body to shield counterprotesters being beaten on the ground and white supremacists alike. And on August 13, she was hoping to do the same for Kessler.
“I remember thinking he looked kind of like a rabbit darting back and forth,” she said. “It was as if he was about to get hit by a train. It was getting worse and worse.”
So she said she embraced him, not intending to knock him down.
“If only he could understand that as an individual, he is loved—it’s this thing that he stands for that is not,” she said.
Regardless of the prosecutor calling her a “nice lady” and the judge saying he didn’t doubt a minute of her testimony, she was found guilty and sentenced to 50 hours of community service.
Winder, a longtime activist who was protesting the war in Iraq with Code Pink when he was arrested for trespassing in 2007 in then congressman Virgil Goode’s office, was also among the mix charged for assaulting the organizer of the Unite the Right rally on August 13.
NBC29 reporter Henry Graff testified that he saw someone who appeared to be Winder strike Kessler when reviewing footage of the press conference gone awry.
While defense attorney James Abrenio argued that Winder couldn’t be identified beyond a reasonable doubt, Downer disagreed and sentenced him to 30 days in jail, with all of them suspended on the condition that he has good behavior for a year.
Brandon Collins, a City Council frequenter who works for Public Housing Association of Residents, entered an Alford plea, meaning he didn’t admit guilt, but recognized that there was enough evidence to convict him of assaulting Kessler. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail with all of them suspended.
And lastly, Kenneth Robert Litzenberger, who allegedly spat on Kessler during the scuffle, had his case continued until next February.
The white nationalist wasn’t given a chance to address the media after the hearing, as anti-racists wedged themselves between him and members of the press.
Veronica Fitzhugh waves to about 50 supporters outside the Charlottesville General District Court after Judge Robert Downer dismissed an assault charge. Staff photo
In her most recent court appearance, a judge dropped an assault charge against activist Veronica Fitzhugh after her accuser failed to appear.
Alleged victim Jason Turner blamed Fitzhugh for yelling at him and pushing him in Emancipation Park on May 21 as he attempted to take a photo of the General Robert E. Lee monument. Turner, who was carrying a Confederate flag, made a video that shows the activist, who fights for black and transgender rights, repeatedly order him to leave the park.
Turner reportedly works in D.C. and has missed a couple of court dates, causing the case to be continued several times.
When Charlottesville General District Court Judge Robert Downer called Fitzhugh’s name, about 30 people dressed in pink stood, until a uniformed deputy demanded they sit down.
Her supporters were once again reprimanded when they cheered as Downer made his ruling. The defendant exited the courtroom to the applause of several dozen other pink-clad fans.
Wearing a gray jacket with “FIND SAGE” printed on its lapels, Fitzhugh declined to give an interview, but plugged Violet Crown’s free screening of MAJOR!, a film about a transgender elder and activist,on November 20—the National Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Her blazer refers to Sage Smith, a local trans woman who was last seen in November 2012 on West Main Street. Earlier this year, police ruled her disappearance a homicide.
Outside the courtroom, Fitzhugh’s attorney made a brief statement about the assault charge. “I’m pleased by it being dismissed,” Jeff Fogel said. “It never should have been brought in the first place.”
He represented Fitzhugh in the same courtroom on October 20, when she was found not guilty of obstructing free passage at the summer’s July 8 Ku Klux Klan rally in Justice Park, where she laid down in front of the gate that white supremacists were scheduled to enter through, and was carried away by police.
Fogel will also stand by his client for another alleged assault that happened May 20, one day before the Turner confrontation. Homegrown right-wing blogger and organizer of the deadly Unite the Right rally, Jason Kessler, filed a charge against Fitzhugh that will be heard February 2.
Updated Tuesday, October 24 at 3pm with a second story about court appearances on Monday, October 23.
Even months prior to August 12, the community was up to its figurative elbows in lawsuits stemming from the emergence of Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler into the local spotlight and the people who’ve made it their goal to publicly confront him.
At the end of last week and the beginning of this one, several familiar faces from the alt-right, as well as its rejectors, were in Charlottesville General District court to learn their fate from Judge Robert Downer.
Wearing a hot pink wig and carrying a Donald Trump mask as a purse, Black Lives Matter activist Veronica Fitzhugh was found not guilty October 20 of obstructing free passage at the summer’s Ku Klux Klan rally in Justice Park.
An arresting officer with the Charlottesville Police Department testified that Fitzhugh refused to leave a passageway police had secured to safely usher the KKK into the park for its permitted demonstration July 8.
The Klan was in town to protest the removal of the city’s General Robert E. Lee statue, and Fitzhugh and about 10 other counterprotesters locked arms in front of a gate into the park, delaying the white supremacist rally for about an hour, according to the CPD officer’s testimony.
When Fitzhugh was instructed to step away from the gate, she laid down in front of it and was carried out by four officers.
“No one was allowed in there except for the people authorized by the police, so this was not a public passageway,” argued her attorney, Jeff Fogel, who noted that the CPD officer’s body cam footage showed a cameraman was also standing in front of the gate that officers later corralled the Klan through. “I don’t know how they could claim Ms. Fitzhugh was obstructing the gate and that gentleman wasn’t.”
The following Monday, in the same courtroom, her attorney had several wins and losses—for additional clients and himself.
On June 1, Kessler’s own video evidence shows he and his buddy, Caleb Norris, approached Fogel outside Miller’s on the Downtown Mall. They were surrounded by members of activist group Showing Up for Racial Justice, as its members shouted “Nazi, go home” at the alleged alt-righters.
The video shows Kessler chastising Fogel for calling him a “crybaby” in April, and Norris can be heard calling the attorney a “communist piece of shit.” Fogel replies, “What did you say?” and is seen putting his hands toward Norris.
“Oh my God, this guy just assaulted my friend,” an elated Kessler says, and urges his friend to press charges against the lawyer who was running for commonwealth’s attorney at the time.
Back in the courtroom, Fogel, represented by his law partner Steve Rosenfield, said Norris leaned over at him and put his hands up to keep Norris from coming any closer. In the video, it was unclear whether Norris leaned into Fogel, but Downer cited Fogel’s unaggressive disposition when Kessler was lambasting him earlier in the clip, and said he couldn’t find Fogel guilty.
Fogel also represented Sara Tansey October 16, who was charged with destruction of property for snatching Kessler’s phone while he was live-streaming a February 11 Corey Stewart rally in Emancipation Park.
Joe Draego, best known for suing the city for being dragged out of a City Council meeting in June 2016 (after he called Muslims “monstrous maniacs” and lay down on the floor), testified that he took the phone out of Tansey’s hand and gave it back to Kessler.
While Tansey was found guilty for nabbing Kessler’s cell phone, Draego was also found guilty of assault and battery of Tansey when he took the phone back.
The judge waived Tansey’s $50 fine, and Draego was ordered to fork over $100.
Fitzhugh was also charged May 31 with assault and disorderly conduct stemming from an encounter with Kessler, in which she allegedly screamed in his face and told him to “fucking go home” as he was sitting at a table on the Downtown Mall.
The activist, known for her outlandish wardrobe, will go to trial for the assault and disorderly conduct charges November 20. What will she wear next?
Among the familiar faces in court this week was Veronica Fitzhugh, wearing a hot pink wig and carrying a purse that resembled Donald Trump’s head.
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Original story:
Wearing a hot pink wig and carrying the head of Donald Trump as a purse, activist Veronica Fitzhugh was found not guilty of obstructing free passage at the summer’s Ku Klux Klan rally in Justice Park.
An arresting officer with the Charlottesville Police Department testified in the city’s general district court October 20 that Fitzhugh refused to leave a passageway police had secured to safely usher the KKK into the park for their permitted demonstration July 8.
The Klan had dropped by to protest the tearing down of the city’s General Robert E. Lee statue, and Fitzhugh and about 10 other counterprotesters locked arms in front of a gate into the park, delaying the white supremacist rally for about an hour, according to the CPD officer’s testimony.
Police warned the crowd that they would be arrested if they did not clear the pathway for the North Carolina group called the Loyal White Knights, and as some counterprotesters began to disperse, Fitzhugh laid down in front of the gate, the officer said. He and three Virginia State Police troopers then carried her out of the vicinity, and she was charged with obstruction of free passage.
“No one was allowed in there except for the people authorized by the police, so this was not a public passageway,” argued her attorney, Jeff Fogel, who noted in the CPD officer’s body cam footage that a cameraman was also standing in front of the gate that officers later corralled the Klan through. “I don’t’ know how they could claim Ms. Fitzhugh was obstructing the gate and that gentleman wasn’t.”
Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman, who prosecuted the case, said she was arrested for “admirable reasons” and “she simply took it too far.”
Judge Robert Downer found her not guilty, and Fitzhugh and Fogel emerged from the courthouse to a crowd of about 30 supporters, who cheered and clapped and lined up to hug the activist who wore a hot pink, rhinestone handcuff necklace that matched her bodacious wig.
Fitzhugh was was also charged May 31 with assault and disorderly conduct stemming from an encounter with homegrown white nationalist Jason Kessler on the Downtown Mall, in which she allegedly screamed in his face for him to “fucking go home.” Her attorney was charged with assault after a confrontation with an associate of Kessler’s June 1.
The activist, known for her outlandish wardrobe, will go to trial for the assault and disorderly conduct charges November 20. What will she wear next?
Veronica Fitzhugh knows how to accessorize. Staff photo
Vernonica Fitzhugh speaks to her supporters before going into court.
Staff photo
Activist Veronica Fitzhugh and commonwealth’s attorney candidate Jeff Fogel both appeared in court this morning for their respective assault charges, accompanied by dozens of supporters.
The brief 10am hearing was over before some people could get through security and into the courtroom.
Fogel represents Fitzhugh, who was charged May 31 with assault and disorderly conduct stemming from a May 20 Downtown Mall encounter with right-winger Jason Kessler, who insists he’s not a white supremacist or white nationalist in a June 2 email to local media that threatens legal action.
Fogel was charged with assault after a confrontation with an associate of Kessler’s outside of Miller’s June 1.
Both Fitzhugh and Fogel were arrested at night with a phalanx of police officers, and Fogel’s attorney, Steve Rosenfield, protested the manner of arrest, as did Fogel when he represented Fitzhugh. Judge Bob Downer quickly shut down those arguments, saying he would not hear political statements.
The pair will be back in court June 19, when a special prosecutor could be named, as well as a new judge, according to Fogel.
He says he’s filed a complaint against the magistrate who had him arrested at 12:30am because the magistrate didn’t like the way Fogel spoke to a police sergeant. He also questions why Fitzhugh was arrested around 9pm more than a week after Kessler claimed she assaulted him, then police say he retracted that allegation on video footage from May 20.
“This is an outrage,” says Fogel. “If it can happen to me, imagine what can happen to someone who’s black, gay or trans.”
More Kessler-related court appearances are scheduled this week. Sarah Tansey, who is charged with destruction of property for allegedly snatching Kessler’s phone, and Joe Draego, who is charged with assault for allegedly retrieving Kessler’s phone from Tansey, will be in court June 8.
Bible in hand and on bended knees, activist Veronica Fitzhugh asks Jason Kessler, whom she's called a "Nazi," for forgiveness.
Staff photo
Charlottesville religious leaders staged a counterprotest this morning at Lee Park in anticipation of a gathering of Confederate supporters that didn’t happen. And when two foes met amid the hymns and prayers, all was not forgiven.
According to a press release, the Confederates were supposed to be at the park at 10am. Members of the religious community, including Methodists, Unitarians and Sojourners, met at First Methodist Church before 9am and proceeded singing into the park.
More than 70 people gathered in front of the statue of General Robert E. Lee and sang,”We Shall Overcome,” “Give Peace a Chance” and “This Little Light of Mine” for more than two hours, while calling for racial justice, love and unity.
People of faith gathered in Lee Park to support racial justice. Staff photo
At the same time off to the side, a handful of those who favor keeping the statue of Lee, an issue that has turned the park into a flashpoint that drew white nationalists two weeks ago, were not part of the unity the organizers advocated.
Western-heritage defender Jason Kessler said he was there to support City Council candidate Kenny Jackson.
Jackson, a native Charlottesvillian and an African-American, wants to keep the Lee statue, a position for which he said he’s been called an Uncle Tom. He pointed out that most of the people wanting to remove it—and assembled for the counterprotest—were affluent whites.
“When Dr. King came here,” said Jackson, “he talked about peace and unity. He didn’t try to make white people feel guilty about the past.”
And about the group of white activists with Showing Up for Racial Justice, he said, “They make us feel like we’re stupid and need special help,” he said.
The statue, he said, “is not an issue for the black community.”
And he denounced those who have been putting up posters around town with photos of Kessler and others, calling them Nazis.
Activist Veronica Fitzhugh’s peacemaking moment was rebuffed when she asked Kessler to hug her.
Instead, Kessler accused her of posting the “Know Your Nazi” posters around town. “It’s one thing to talk about love and peace, but this woman has been putting up fliers with my name and address, saying we’re Nazis, listing our places of business and telling people to harass us,” he said.
Ten days ago, Fitzhugh, wearing a pink wig, screamed in Kessler’s face for him to “fucking go home” when he sat at a table on the Downtown Mall May 20. Today, wearing a black mantilla-like scarf, she got on her knees before him and asked, “Are you going to forgive me?”
“I want you to leave me alone,” replied Kessler.
Jackson continued to object to the posters he claimed urged people to kill Nazis.
“What I said was, ‘Nazi go home,'” said Fitzhugh.
“Let him talk,” interjected Mason Pickett, a City Council regular who has his own adversarial relationship with SURJ, two of whose members quickly were in his face as police officers approached and intervened.
“It is not against the law to yell at people,” said Fitzhugh. Among the cops standing nearby was Chief Al Thomas, but when she asked, no one answered her question about the legality of screaming at people.
Chief Al Thomas and Major Gary Pleasants are on hand, along with about 20 other cops at Lee Park. Photo Eze Amos
Jackson mentioned a May 20 video of Fitzhugh and others shouting at Kessler. “On the video you were cursing and abusing,” said Jackson, who pointed out that was illegal and indicated he knew that from personal experience.
There were some less confrontational discussions between those holding opposing viewpoints.
Artist Aaron Fein said he came to listen to other people. “Certainly there were people with whom I found common ground I didn’t expect, and other opinions weren’t changed.”
Jason Kessler passed on an opportunity to hold hands in public. Photo Eze Amos
When a speaker from the larger religious group asked everyone to grab the hand of a neighbor, Fein stood in a small circle with Jackson’s group, which was also holding hands. Fein held one hand extended to Kessler, who kept his own firmly in his pocket.
Kessler told some of those talking to him that he supported Jackson because he wasn’t into “white guilt.” He pointed to the spiritual adherents and said, “These people are trying to wipe white people from the face of the earth by 2050. They want to displace white people.”
Brittany Caine-Conley was one of the organizers of the event. “I’m here because I think it’s imperative people of faith organize against racism,” she said. “It’s one of the imperatives of Christianity.”
“We need to stop hate,” echoed Jackson. “We need to stop posting signs that talk about killing people.”
As many of those in the park dispersed, Chief Thomas, when asked how it went, said, “We only have one goal—that everyone stays safe and respectful.”
Correction: Aaron Fein was misidentified in the original version.
