Neo-Nazi Trial Over Concord Rally Delayed Due To Late Evidence

By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org, InDepth NH

CONCORD, NH — The state’s civil trial against Neo-Nazi group NSC-131 and its leader Christopher Hood is on hold as the court waits for the white supremacists to turn over cell phone videos and social media messages.

Hood and NCS-131 are being accused of violating civil rights laws for their aggressive June 18, 2023 demonstration in Concord that targeted staff and patrons at a Teatotaller Cafe’s drag queen story hour.

Trial was set to begin last month, but Senior Assistant Attorney General Sean Locke was granted an open-ended delay from Merrimack Superior Court Judge John Kissinger as NSC-131 had still not turned over evidence in the lawsuit. The Neo-Nazis are supposed to hand over photos and videos they made of their actions to post on social media, planning messages sent before the incident, and messages sent after the incident concerning the promotion of the social media posts.

This evidence sought by the state sparked a long-running legal battle as Hood and his racist club argued unsuccessfully that handing over things like their own promotional videos or planning communication violated their constitutional rights, including their Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination.

But in January, Kissinger ruled there is no legal reason stopping Hood and his club members from handing over the evidence they themselves created in order to plan and promote their harassment campaign.

“As the Court observed … Twenty men dressed in uniform did not spontaneously arrive at the Teatotaller Café: this demonstration was a planned act requiring communication. For that reason, the existence of such communications is already sufficiently known,” Kissinger wrote in his January order.

But in the months since Kissinger’s order, and with the trial date approaching, Hood and NSC-131 have failed to come up with the evidence, according to Locke’s March request for a delay. It’s not known if that’s changed since the trial date was put into limbo in March.

Michael Garrity, spokesman with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office declined to comment on the pending case, and Hood’s lawyer, William Gens, did not respond to a request for comment.

There’s also the matter of $16,000 in attorney fees Hood and NSC-131 were ordered to pay to the state. After filing “extremely late” motions that had no chance of prevailing, Locke argued the Neo-Nazis ought to pay for the time and trouble they caused for lawyers in the Civil Rights Unit. Kissinger agreed in his January ruling.

“[T]he defendants filed their objection approximately four months after they moved to strike the associated conditional default. Moreover, the defendants first delivered their objection to the Court (and the State) at the beginning of the relevant hearing, despite the fact that the hearing was scheduled months in advance and continued twice upon defense counsel’s request. These events necessitated an additional hearing on the matter,” Kissinger wrote. “On the record presented, the Court concludes that the defendants’ conduct was patently unreasonable and caused unnecessary delay.”

There’s no documentation on file showing if Hood and the other NSC-131 defendants have yet made good on the fees. The group currently claims it is defunct, according to court records.

Hood, a Massachusetts resident, led his masked members to threaten Teatotaller's patrons and staff during the incident. The hate group members shouted threatening white-power and Nazi slogans, and pounded on windows while trying to stop a drag performer from reading a children’s book, according to court records.

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.