Hate group the Proud Boys have lost control of their trademarked name after a judge in Washington, DC, ruled that it be handed over to a Black church that was attacked by members of the far-right group four years ago.
The decision from Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier is meant to fulfill a $US2.8 million ($4.5 million) default judgment entered against the Proud Boys by a different judge in DC in 2023 to get back damages incurred by the church during the December 2020 attack.
The two-page ruling says that all the group’s interests in the “Proud Boys” trademark will be transferred to the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church and that the organisation and people associated with it must first get consent from the DC church to use the mark or sell any merchandise containing it.
It also means that any money the group makes from using the trademark must be paid to the church to help satisfy the multi-million-dollar default judgment.
“The Church has a long history of standing up for justice and against all forms of hate,” the church’s leader, Reverend William H. Lamar IV, told CNN.
“We are determined to hold the Proud Boys accountable and we will continue this fight.”
Enrique Tarrio, the group’s former chairman, said in a lengthy statement posted to X that the church “must be subjected to a thorough audit, and its non-profit status revoked immediately”.
“This church has engaged in a campaign of harassment and falsehoods, evidenced by their every filed motion,” he wrote.
Tarrio had been serving a 22-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy but was pardoned last month by President Donald Trump as part of a sweeping grant of clemency that included pardons for scores of participants in the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack and commutations for other members of the Proud Boys.
The December 2020 attack on the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church was described by a separate DC judge in 2023 as “highly orchestrated” and featuring “hateful and overtly racist conduct” from members of the Proud Boys.
The order from Judge Neal E. Kravitz said several people in Proud Boys regalia “leaped over Metropolitan AME’s fence, entered the church’s property, and went directly to the Black Lives Matter sign”.
“They then broke the zip ties that held the sign in place, tore down the sign, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it while loudly celebrating,” the order read.
“Many others then jumped over the fence onto the church’s property and joined in the celebration of the sign’s destruction.”
