Trial begins in lawsuit over racist rally in Virginia. One defendant has Stanislaus ties
Nathan Damigo, who has ties to the Oakdale area, is among the defendants in a trial that just started over the deadly racist rally in Virginia in 2017.
Nine people filed a lawsuit against Damigo and 23 other defendants for emotional and physical trauma from that event. The trial began Monday in U.S. District Court in Charlottesville, scene of the clash that left counterprotester Heather Heyer dead.
Damigo, 33, founded a group called Identify Evropa and helped organize the Aug. 12 rally that year. His only criminal conviction came two months later, when he was fined $200 for “failing to disperse in a riot.”
At the time, Damigo was working toward a bachelor’s degree in social sciences at California State University, Stanislaus. His presence prompted protests in the area and anti-hate resolutions by the Turlock and Oakdale city councils.
Damigo is a former Marine who served a prison term for robbing a Middle Eastern cab driver in 2007. In 2017, he was seen on video punching a woman at a Berkeley demonstration.
The Modesto Bee’s Garth Stapley examined Damigo in depth in a 2017 piece. Damigo’s LinkedIn page lists him as an Oakdale resident, but it was not clear Wednesday whether that still is the case.
The trial was in its third day of jury selection Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon. The defendants include 14 people and 10 groups tied to the rally.
The suit was filed in October 2017 by Charlottesville-area residents but has been delayed by legal maneuvering. They wanted to show that the rally organizers had planned ahead for violence, the Washington Post reported last week.
“Defendants brought with them to Charlottesville the imagery of the Holocaust, of slavery, of Jim Crow, and of fascism,” the plaintiffs said in the complaint. “They also brought with them semi-automatic weapons, pistols, mace, rods, armor, shields and torches.”
The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages. Damigo filed for bankruptcy in early 2019 in an attempt to shield his assets from the plaintiffs. A judge in Modesto rejected the move.
Damigo is represented at the current trial by Cincinnati-based attorney James E. Kolenich, who has expressed support for white supremacy himself.
This story was originally published October 27, 2021 at 1:54 PM.
