A recent court ruling is handing over the trademark ownership of the Proud Boys to a Black church that the group was found to have vandalized in 2020.
A Feb. 3 ruling from Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia has resulted in the group’s trademark being handed over to the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.
The decision is meant to fulfill a $2.8 default judgement entered against the Proud Boys that was entered by a different D.C. judge in 2023. The 2023 decision was meant to help the church recoup the losses it suffered from the December 2020 attack.
Now, the ruling from Bosier also gives the church a lien on the trademark and the power to block the group from using it or selling licensed goods without the church’s approval.
Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the group, posted a statement about the ruling from Monday, disagreeing with the final decision.
“This organization, masquerading as a church, must be subjected to a thorough audit, and its non-profit status revoked immediately,” Tarrio wrote on X. “The judge’s conduct in this case necessitates impeachment and investigation. Their actions are a betrayal of justice, reminiscent of Judas’s treachery.”
The remarks from Tarrio come after he was recently pardoned from his 22-year prison sentence that he was serving for seditious conspiracy charges tied to his involvement with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol building.
The initial act of vandalism that resulted in the transferring of the trademark ownership occurred on Dec. 12, 2020, when a group of Proud Boys attended a “stop the steal” event in Washington, D.C. While there, they also reportedly climbed over a church fence, entering the property and destroying a “Black Lives Matters” sign, court documents shared.
The court ordered the group to pay the church $2.8 million, but those payments have not been made, resulting in this week’s ruling.
“This is our time to stand up, to be very clear to the Proud Boys and their ilk that we came here fighting, that we have never ever capitulated to the violent whims of white supremacist groups,” Rev. William H. Lamar IV, a pastor of the Metropolitan AME Church, shared with CBS News. “If they thought we would be afraid, they were wrong. There are many people with us and who stand with us.”