Foley Hoag Secures $2.7M for Charles Murrell III in Lawsuit Against Patriot Front for Racist Attack
January 28, 2025
Foley Hoag LLP, in partnership with Human Rights First, has secured $2.7 million in compensatory and punitive damages in a civil rights lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Charles Murrell III against white supremacist group Patriot Front, its leader Thomas Rousseau, and unnamed members of the group for their violent attack on Murrell in Boston in 2022.
As alleged in the lawsuit, in July 2022, Patriot Front members marched along Boston’s historic Freedom Trail. They wore neck gaiters to mask their faces and conceal their identities and carried large homemade shields that could be used as weapons. When the members encountered bystander Charles Murrell III, a Black man, on the sidewalk, they physically attacked him, pushed him against a street pole, and beat him with their shields, feet, and fists.
The lawsuit, filed August 8, 2023 in the U.S. District Court in Boston, alleged that the defendants conspired to interfere with Murrell’s civil rights, in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 (42 USC 1985(3)) and the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, as well as other related state law claims.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani granted the request for a default judgment against Patriot Front and Rousseau, and an evidentiary hearing was held in October 2024 to determine damages. Murrell was awarded $775,000 in damages for his physical and psychological injuries, pain and suffering, lost wages and future earnings, and $2,000,000 in punitive damages.
During the 2024 hearing Murrell said he brought the lawsuit because he hoped to give individuals like his students “the courage and motivation and inspiration to push through and find accountability” against those who commit acts rooted in hate.
“This ruling makes clear that racially motivated attacks like the ones that defendants Patriot Front and Thomas Rousseau perpetrated against Mr. Murrell on July 2, 2022 are a direct violation of the rights guaranteed to all Americans by the United States Constitution,” said Foley Hoag partner Anthony Mirenda. “The court’s nearly $3 million award – which includes $2 million in punitive damages – sends an unequivocal message that such behavior is not tolerated in the United States, and that those who engage in such un-American conduct will be held accountable.”
In addition to Mirenda, the Foley Hoag team representing Murrell included James Gross, Allen Thigpen, Caroline Holliday and Carla Nigro.
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