A choose in Washington, D.C., on Friday ordered members of the Proud Boys to pay over $1 million to a historic Black church after it sued the far-right group for destruction of property in a December 2020 episode wherein the group’s members tore down the church’s massive Black Lives Matter signal.

The lawsuit, filed by Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in opposition to the Proud Boys’ management and restricted legal responsibility firm, mentioned a number of of the group’s members climbed over a fence surrounding the church to destroy the signal throughout a violent clash between supporters and opponents of President Donald J. Trump close to the White House. The church sought compensatory damages for tens of 1000’s of {dollars} to exchange the signal and to cowl the price of elevated safety.

The ruling by Judge Neal E. Kravitz of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia was a default judgment issued after the defendants, which included Enrique Tarrio, Joseph R. Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Jeremy Bertino, John Turano and over a dozen unknown events, failed to look in court docket.

The extra $1 million awarded in punitive damages “represents an amount that the court saw appropriate to both punish the Proud Boys for what they did and also deter them from ever doing it again,” mentioned Arthur Ago of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in a telephone interview on Saturday. The committee represented the church.

Mr. Ago added that the court docket acknowledged “the white supremacist orientation” of the Proud Boys and that their actions had been “motivated by that orientation.”

Members of the Proud Boys engaged in “acts of terror and vandalizing church property in an effort to intimidate the church and silence its support for racial justice,” the lawsuit mentioned. They additionally stole and set hearth to Black Lives Matter indicators from a close-by church, it mentioned.

In his ruling, Judge Kravitz referred to as their conduct “hateful and overtly racist.”

The Rev. William H. Lamar IV, the church’s pastor, mentioned that its management unanimously supported taking authorized motion after the incident. Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church is simply blocks from the White House and is a part of the primary impartial Protestant denomination based by Black individuals.

Mr. Tarrio, the previous chief of the Proud Boys, Mr. Biggs and Mr. Nordean had been additionally among the many members convicted of seditious conspiracy in May for plotting to maintain Mr. Trump in energy after the 2020 election by main a violent mob in attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, weeks after the assault on the church. They have all been in custody since their arrests.

In December 2020, the members “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,” Judge Kravitz wrote within the order.

He added that the group has “incited and committed acts of violence against members of Black and African American communities” and has “victimized women, Muslims, Jews, immigrants and other historically marginalized people.”

Judge Kravitz barred the defendants from coming inside 100 yards of the church for 5 years and from making threats or defamatory remarks in opposition to it or its pastor.

Lawyers for many of the defendants didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark or declined to take action.

“I doubt the church will see a dime,” Norm Pattis, counsel for Mr. Biggs, mentioned in an electronic mail. “None of the defendants appeared to contest the case,” he added. “I don’t think anyone is losing any sleep over this.”

Lawyers for the plaintiff mentioned they intend to research the defendants’ funds to make sure they adjust to the order.

In 2021, Mr. Tarrio was sentenced to more than five months in jail for setting hearth to the Black Lives Matter banner taken from Asbury United Methodist Church, close to Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. At the time, he apologized for his actions in court docket and referred to as them a “grave mistake.”

Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church changed its signal after it was destroyed, Mr. Lamar mentioned. It will rejoice its 185th yr on Sunday.

“We refuse to live in a nation where that kind of violence has the last word,” he mentioned in a telephone interview on Saturday. “We will never be silent.”