Attorneys are considering their appellate options after a federal judge drastically reduced the amount of money owed by alleged organizers of the deadly “Unite the Right” rally, limiting a $24 million punitive damages award to the maximum amount allowed by Virginia law: $350,000.
In an 89-page opinion filed Dec. 30, U.S. District Senior Judge Norman K. Moon of the Western District of Virginia affirmed the jury verdict in Sines v. Kessler and maintained the compensatory damages for the plaintiffs who suffered injuries. Following a monthlong trial last year, a jury found white supremacist groups and individuals liable for planning and participating in violence during the August 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
